I disagree with Socrates’ claim that morality is objective. According to Dr. Jordan B Cooper (2018), sophists believed that there was no objective truth that could be concluded by the use of philosophy. The perception of life, including morality, varies from person to person. Morality is like a temperature, which can be cold for one person and hot for another person. People’s moral beliefs of what is good and what is bad is a construction of the knowledge that was obtained from other people of the same society as children learning from the parents. For example, some ancient societies had a human sacrifice, which was a part of social norms, while other societies did not see such activities as morally acceptable. Thus, the definition of morality is relative and can vary from society to society, and even from individual to individual.
Modern law is a very complex set of rules. Those rules were based on the vision of lawmakers on what is moral and what is not. It is morally justified to break the law if the person truly believes that the action he is committing is within his moral concepts. According to the Academy of Ideas (2013), Socrates believed that evil is committed because of ignorance. If one knew that his action is evil, he would not commit such acts. Hence, the question of whether it is justified to break the low directly relates to the individual’s moral concept. For example, people smoking marijuana truly believe that marijuana poses no harm to society. Socrates’ reason not to resist the death sentence was part of his moral standards. In this sense, I agree with his decision not to escape from prison.
References
Academy of Ideas. (2013). The Ideas of Socrates. YouTube. Web.
Dr. Jordan B Cooper. (2018). The Sophists (A History of Western Thought 8). YouTube. Web.