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Socrates on the Moral Authority of the State
The question of duty, responsibility in front of the law sometimes may stand contrary to the moral values. This issue has been ongoing and pervasive since the appearance of the state as a notion. Is the citizen should obey the law if it talks against his or her morality? It is difficult to answer this controversial question at once. Indeed, it would be easier to take concrete examples of such situations and resolve them. However, if talking in general, this issue will become philosophical. Socrates is considered one of the most influential philosophers who raised that idea of the moral authority of the state. This person contributed a lot to the aspects of law and morality dealing in symbiosis and contrast.
Socrates explains the meaning of the word “state” from the nature of man, considering it to be unnatural, but a combination of social and moral being. From his viewpoint, the state is a moral community of people, an association of virtuous citizens who created it to achieve common happiness and justice. It is the product of the human mind, its knowledge. Thanks to the ability to think a person has knowledge that expresses the extent of comprehension of objective moral principles of justice and legality. The basis of justice is knowledge since educated people will prefer the morally beautiful behavior. Intelligent, correct representations of justice is a byproduct of the virtuous behavior of a person who is treated in the same way by other citizens. Formation of moral qualities of a person is created through education, development of a habit. Also, this morality depends on the form of the state.
Socrates equals happiness with virtue, but not with profit. However, doing good is necessary only for knowing what is good and what is bad. The ability to distinguish these contrastive notions makes people honest. If evil is the result of ignorance of good, then morality is a consequence of knowledge. Thus, Socrates first brought knowledge to the level of the concept and substantiated his philosophical method in which he explains the identity of justice and morality.
According to Socrates, the moral basis and essence of the state are built on the good rules and law system.
They are the realization of justice which becomes the criteria of obedience within the state. The Socrates’ law theory is focused on the equality and synonymic relation of the notions of “justice” and “morality.” This identity is created due to the fact that the law is prepared by intelligent people with positive moral nature.
To conclude, the sense of identifying virtue with knowledge is the idea which should be followed even in our modern-day world. Socrates’ opinion and his conviction would be somewhat difficult to understand if there were no “politics” as it is perceived today. Therefore, it is quite probable that some significant part of the political principles developed by this philosopher can be applicable nowadays. The intellectual nature of the State, the tendency to seek salvation from a well-educated ruler, undoubtedly, is a consequence of the further development of Socrates’ belief that virtue, not excluding political integrity, means knowledge.