If you enjoy Paul Johnson’s unique take on history, you’ll appreciate his new examination of the life — and death — of Socrates.
Subtitled “A Man For Our Times,” this volume combines a brief biographical sketch with Johnson’s observations about the Greek philosopher’s impact on Western civilization.
Among the topics of discussion: Socrates’ decision to accept a death sentence from his fellow Athenians rather than save his life by fleeing to another city-state:
Its government was always imperfect often grievously amiss, and sometimes monstrous. But it was his city, which he had fought for, ant to which he belonged inextricably. Everyone, even or especially philosophers, had to accept the rule of law of the place where they lived. In his case, this rule had come into conflict with his higher calling. The result was a sentence of death. He thought his conviction was mistaken and his sentence unjust. But to seek to evade it by bribery and corruption would be an even greater wrong, an unarguable and incontrovertible injustice that he could never perpetrate. If, as he believed, he was the victim of injustice, how could this be put right by committing an even greater injustice, greater in that he knew it to be unjust? The governing principle of his life was that a wrong could never justify a further wrong in response. Far better to submit to injustice, in the hope and confident expectation that, in time, men and women would come to see it so, and cherish his memory for his fortitude in accepting it.
