Did Socrates Commit Suicide

Did Socrates commit suicide and why?

Upon taking the ethics class and learning and understanding the teachings of great philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle I am even more driven to gather more knowledge about ethics as well as information about the above mentioned philosophers who have been instrumental in shedding light into the complex view on ethics. This is why I chose this topic, in order to explore whether Socrates actually did commit suicide and why he did so. After being familiar with the teachings and views of Socrates I believe that without doubt he was indeed a great man with great attributes and intellect. For a person as such who possessed such pedigree to even think of committing suicide is hard to imagine and
Socrates lived during a time period where the transition from the height of the Athenian empire to its decline took place. Such a decline took place at the hands of Sparta where Athenians faced defeat in the Peloponnesian war (2006). Thus this was a time period where the Athenians were recovering from the humiliating defeat from Sparta. This was also a time in culture where Greeks believed and thought of gods and goddesses as being associated with protecting particular cities. They believed that Athens was protected by the Greek goddess Athena (2006). These aspects have great significance in shaping up the death of Socrates. Because most of the teachings and beliefs of Socrates went against the belief of Athena and her godly existence, the people of Athens became quite irritated and frustrated with Socrates. The last thing they desired was to have one man in the form of Socrates questioning Athena and subjecting all Athenians to yet another painful punishment at her hands. Thus the entire false accusations were built around this aspect and Socrates was brought to trial. (2006). Even though Socrates had strong valid arguments against the accusers it all fell in deaf ears and the unfortunate, wrong verdict was brought forward declaring that Socrates is guilty and that he was to be sentenced to death by drinking a cup of hemlock. The court stated that Socrates was
Even though I still believe that suicide is the most cardinal sin and should never be carried out given any circumstance something inside tells me that, Socrates by taking his own life had a lasting and powerful effect towards people about his work and teachings. He understood that he can bring forth more good to people by dying than living, thus he reasoned that suicide was the right thing to do which he carried out. The utilitarian view suggests that if an action brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people it can be deemed ethical. Maybe we can look at things from a utilitarian point of view and understand the suicide of Socrates even better.

Reference

Socrates. (2006). Trial and death. In Wikipedia [Web]. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved July 24th, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic

Bond, Nicholas (2006). Philosophy. Retrieved July 24, 2006, from http://qonos.princeton.edu/nbond/socrates.doc

(2006). Answers to questions about greek philosophy. Socrates, Retrieved July 24, 2006, from