Socrates was one of the philosophers who sacrificed his life for the sake of justice in society. He had been accused falsely by the ten demon tyrants of inciting the youths against the owners of the means of production. Plato was one of his students and a friend as well. Socrates wanted to know whether piousness was respected by the gods for the reason that it is virtuous or is it the gods that loved piousness because it is virtuous. Socrates wondered whether the issue of piety was even of any significance to the gods (Plato 11).
The questions raised by Socrates are considered casual in the philosophical world yet they have great meaning in the political, religious, and social lives. On the one hand, there are the gods, which love piety while on the hand there is piety, which is pious to be loved by the gods. The question is whether piety influences the gods to be pious or the gods love piety simply because it is pious. In the first case, the gods love the piety because of certain unknown reasons.
The reasoning of Socrates on this issue was that the gods might decide to love something without giving a reason because they are holy (Plato 18). If the gods give a reason for loving something, the nature of that thing makes it worthy of love so the gods should simply appreciate something due to that thing’s objective value. Socrates implied in the second question that the gods are also objective or rational.
In the theological world, the reasoning of Socrates is very important because something godly is good while something ungodly is automatically bad. Something good is believed to originate from God meaning that the nature of piousness leads to the recognition of a monotheistic God, which is later translated to mean Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
In this regard, God would be omnipresent and makes arbitrary decisions. This issue has generated a number of controversies in the theological world. Islam is one of the religions believing that God is omnipotent and can decide to love something without any solid reason. In the second question, Socrates suggested that the gods love piety because piety is moral. This means that the gods are also objective because they give a reason for loving something (Plato 19). In this case, Socrates meant that piety is good because it is moral implying that the gods give a reason for loving something, as seen in the Jewish religion.
In the political arena, the issue of whether the leader is always correct has always raised controversies. Leaders make decisions, which are sometimes unfavorable to the populace simply because they are leaders. In this regard, it is believed that leaders are chosen by the gods hence their decisions should not be questioned. Socrates accepted to die because leaders decided that he had committed a crime by siding with the youths. However, leaders should always be held responsible meaning that people should not rely on democracy but instead they should focus on achieving justice. For anything that a leader does, he or she should consider whether justice would be achieved at the end.
In the social life, those in authority should not do things just because they are in a position to shape public opinion but instead they should be objective in whatever they do in order to achieve justice. Democracy is the worst form of governance because it amounts to the tyranny of the multitude. Democratically elected leaders are not good leaders because they do not aim at achieving justice. They aim at fulfilling the interests of the majority who elected them. The majority are not always right because they are not the best in society. The best leaders should be chosen based on a certain criteria, such as the education system.
Works Cited
Plato. Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 2002. Print.