The Ethical Research On "The Death Of Socrates"

In399BC, the classical Greek Athenian philosopher Socrates was put on trial in an openAthenian court. He was found guilty and subsequently sentenced to death by drinking amixture containing poison hemlock. Based on the historical overview of western philosophy,the death of Socrates is not the end, but the beginning of a new era of western philosophy.The death of Socrates is iconic. It not only accommodated Socrates’ thought as an individual,but also motivated more ethnical reflections beyond Socratic Method. This dissertation beginswith the pre-existing historical documents of "the death of Socrates" and the first part of thiswork is concerned with the comic discourse surrounding Socrates, with the record documentsfrom his students Xenophon and Plato, and with the supplement material from Aristotle. Itfurther traces the rise and fall of Athenian and the trial of Socrates and combines with theessence of predecessor’s work, given a critical judgment of Socrates’ death from the ethicalpoint of view. The second part of this work focuses on the three ethical issues concerningSocrates’ death. It expatiates dialectically the personal ethics, the three-level branch of ethicaldimensions of political ethics and death ethics stimulated by the incident of Socrates’ death.This dissertation also proceeds with the multiple identities of Socrates as a philosopher, ethics,and intellectuals and specifies in the Socrates’ personal ethics as "living a Good life ", politicalethical thought of "an ideal city-state", the co-existing agnosticism and immortality of the soulas the morality of death to further clarify its tragic meaning and significance. In theconclusion part, combined with the above studies, this dissertation gives a review summary ofcontemporary moral and contemporary democratic, which extracts realistic reflections andrecommendations for today’s society and strive to re-publicity of the great power of faith andmorality in personal and social. In the meantime, from the political and ethical point of view,this dissertation gives an outlook of the building process of democracy and rule of law incontemporary China and compares it with the spirit from Socrates, to try to extract realisticthinking and suggestions which will conformance the requirement of contemporary China.