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Socrates argued that naturally all human beings pursue happiness and content. His second argument was that all human beings do not want to suffer and, therefore, try to avoid sufferings at any costs. As a result, the wrongdoings of various people have to be viewed as the actions directed to the pursuit of happiness and other desired goods. For instance, according to Socrates’ reasoning, an individual who has stolen someone else’s money or property definitely has done an evil deed. However, this evil is unintended as the real purpose of the theft was positive, namely, the maximization of personal happiness and financial security.
Such reasoning is logical and makes sense just like the statement that altruistic deeds do not exist because in the long run everything a person does has one goal – to bring some kind of benefit for the doer. That is why, none of the deeds are selfless, but also none of them are intended as evil.
The point of view of Socrates is clear, but in my opinion, it has one significant limitation – it is rather one-sided. In other words, Socrates evaluates the nature of all deeds based on the perspective of the doer. An action is regarded as good when it brings good to the actor. I believe that in this reference it is important to review the statement of Socrates carefully and notice that the philosopher maintained that “no person knowingly does evil”. The conclusion Socrates makes (that “all evil is ignorance”) is based on the key word “knowingly”. The statement means that in all the evil deeds the doer is unaware of the negative effect they create. At the same time, one may identify a multitude of demonstrations of people committing wrongdoings with full awareness of all the negative effects. For example, when a state leader decides to declare war on their neighboring state, the leader is fully of all the negative consequences. I disagree with the statement of Socrates. Besides, many of us sometimes commit wrongdoing just because out benefit is comprised by the sufferings of others, and in such cases the wrongdoing is neither ignorant nor has it a good purpose.
In the modern society evil as an outcome of ignorance is a complex issue from the legal point of view. For instance, the American legal system distinguishes between two types of unlawful killings – those resulting from lawful actions and happening accidentally, and those resulting from unlawful actions but also unintended as murder. The former scenario is excusable as involuntary manslaughter, and the second one is prosecutable as a homicide committed due to criminal negligence (“Accidental Killing” par. 4-8). As a result, all the legally punishable actions are defined by the deliberate harm regardless of its character and what or who is harmed. In other words, the modern justice system is based on the belief that there is such phenomenon as intended evil. Therefore, if the society accepted that all evil is ignorance, the justice system as we know it would stop making sense.
Prison sentencing and death penalties would stop to exist because these are the measures employed to protect the society through the isolation of the harmful individuals. Socrates’ perspective assumes that no one is harmful, and harm occurs accidentally, so imprisonment and death penalty would not be needed.
Works Cited
Accidental Killing. n. d. Web.
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