Ignorance In Plato's Dialogue, The Apology

“Are you so much wiser at your age than I am at mine that you understand that wicked people always do some harm to their closet neighbors while good people do them good, but I have reached such a pitch of ignorance that I do not realize this, namely that if I make one of my associates wicked I run the risk of being harmed by him so that I do such a great evil deliberately, as you say?” (25e-26a) In Plato’s dialogue, The Apology, Socrates famously uses the argument that no man knowingly or willingly does harm in order to defend himself against due charge of corrupting the youth. Socrates believed that if he has corrupted the youth, it is involuntarily, and for that reason he ought not to be punished for doing so. Ignorance is the only thing that would cause people to do the wrong thing and cause harm against each other, according to Socrates’ belief. We seek the good, but we fail to achieve so by the lack of knowledge or by ignorance. People act upon ignorance while …show more content…
For example, if you enjoy hurting other people and see no wrong in it, causing the action to make you feel good about yourself, then you could carry on this same mindset to your children. Then once your children have the same mindset, they form a society in which harming others is a good thing. The concepts of right from wrong derive from society’s favoritism, that is, if society thinks harming someone is bad, then we are intentionally carrying out something that is bad, but only in the eyes of others in the society. It is a natural law that derives from civilizations over the years. Although our society created a foundation on right from wrong, in all actuality, we don’t know what is “actually” the right or wrong thing to do. We only know what we believe it might be, based on society’s viewpoints. We can be falsely accused of believing the wrong thing. So if you aren’t harming others in society’s eyes, are you doing actual