- 著者
-
兼子 盾夫
- 出版者
- 湘南工科大学
- 雑誌
- 相模工業大学紀要 = Memoirs of Sagami Institute of Technology (ISSN:02860910)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.13, no.1, pp.81-90, 1979-03-31
"Crito", one of the most early works of Plato, has neither so elaborate a dialogue, which often includes rather paradoxical statements such as "first and greatest of all evils is to do wrongs and escape punishment (Gorg. 479D)" and "no one willingly goes to meet evil (Prot. 358)", nor a complicated metaphysics, e.g. the theory of ideas in the later works. Therefore it is easy to understand and, as it were, monophonic. It's subtitle is "How should a man behave?" That is to say, "What is the just behaviour for a citizen?". Generally speaking, and so thought sophists, to do justice then was to be obedient to the "laws" νομοι which were in turn made as just. Therefore, if the grounds of them are relative, then the meaning of "justice" δικαιοσυνη has also to be varied. On the contrary, Socrates held the view that the meaning of it must not be changed, according to various situations. For what is meant by "justice" to him was as follows : "justice in itself is the best thing for the soul itself" αυτο δικαιοσυυην αυτη ψνχη αριστον ηυρομεν (Resp. 612B). To him justice was, per se, the best thing for one's soul itself and laws were "norms" or "Sollen", which called the agent for the practice of absolute values. While to many sophists laws were nothing but the "conventions" which were artificially made by people, to Socrates they were "norms" by which people could make their souls better. Therefore, it was not his sense for consistency in laws but his respect for laws' absolute values that made Socrates reject Crito's earnest persuasion to get out of prison and away from Athens. From first to last Socrates insisted on his obeying the laws. But at that time he was far from such a stubborn observer of the laws as "Cleon" in Sophocles' "Antigone". His coherency came from the theoretical grounds as stated above. This paper attempts firstly to shed light upon the grounds of Socrates' ideas such as "law", "the state" and "justice" in the historical background, and secondly to compare them, par excellence, "Socratic" notions with those of his contemporary sophists. The ultimate purpose of this paper is to make clear the phases of Socrates' ideas of "law" and "justice" in his philosophy."Crito", one of the most early works of Plato, has neither so elaborate a dialogue, which often includes rather paradoxical statements such as "first and greatest of all evils is to do wrongs and escape punishment (Gorg. 479D)" and "no one willingly goes to meet evil (Prot. 358)", nor a complicated metaphysics, e.g. the theory of ideas in the later works. Therefore it is easy to understand and, as it were, monophonic. It's subtitle is "How should a man behave?" That is to say, "What is the just behaviour for a citizen?". Generally speaking, and so thought sophists, to do justice then was to be obedient to the "laws" νομοι which were in turn made as just. Therefore, if the grounds of them are relative, then the meaning of "justice" δικαιοσυνη has also to be varied. On the contrary, Socrates held the view that the meaning of it must not be changed, according to various situations. For what is meant by "justice" to him was as follows : "justice in itself is the best thing for the soul itself" αυτο δικαιοσυυην αυτη ψνχη αριστον ηυρομεν (Resp. 612B). To him justice was, per se, the best thing for one's soul itself and laws were "norms" or "Sollen", which called the agent for the practice of absolute values. While to many sophists laws were nothing but the "conventions" which were artificially made by people, to Socrates they were "norms" by which people could make their souls better. Therefore, it was not his sense for consistency in laws but his respect for laws' absolute values that made Socrates reject Crito's earnest persuasion to get out of prison and away from Athens. From first to last Socrates insisted on his obeying the laws. But at that time he was far from such a stubborn observer of the laws as "Cleon" in Sophocles' "Antigone". His coherency came from the theoretical grounds as stated above. This paper attempts firstly to shed light upon the grounds of Socrates' ideas such as "law", "the state" and "justice" in the historical background, and secondly to compare them, par excellence, "Socratic" notions with those of his contemporary sophists. The ultimate purpose of this paper is to make clear the phases of Socrates' ideas of "law" and "justice" in his philosophy.