Socrates' Conscience

Hannah Arendt, the great Jewish-German philosopher, traced the roots of the Western philosophic understanding of conscience to Socrates. Central to her view is Socrate' refusal to accept contradiction within himself. Socrates is reported to have said,

It would be better for me that my lyre or a chorus I direct were out of tune and loud with discord, and that most men should not agree with me and contradict me, rather than that I, being one, should be out of tune with myself and contradict myself. (Georgias 482b-c)

Socrates could not abide with hypocrisy. For him, the silent inner dialogue with oneself is what constitutes the self into a person. Who could desire to be at odds with their own self? The most important thing in life is to know yourself and be at one with yourself.

Internal dialogue with self is inescapable for Socrates. You can walk away from other people when you have a disagreement, but you cannot walk away from yourself. When you do what you know is wrong, you are witness against yourself and cannot get away from your accuser. You condemn yourself to live with self-reproach.

More than anything else, Socrates wanted to be able to be hold an internal dialogue with himself with integrity and thereby be able to live with himself. That's why he said, "It is better to suffer wrong than do wrong." (Georgias 475c)

Socrates thought teaching people how to think without contradiction would enable them to live without contradiction. For him, morality was founded on the inner intercourse between self with itself. If each person conducted that dialogue with integrity, he thought, there would be no need for external rules or standards.

Ancient Athens thought Socrates teaching corrupted the morals of the city's youth. He encouraged them to examine the traditional beliefs on which morality had been based. In their eyes, undermining unquestioning belief and obedience threatened the harmony of city life.

Athens passed a death sentence on Socrates for disrupting the peace and tranquility of their society. Socrates willingly suffered this injustice rather than actually undermine the rule of law by fleeing the city.

Arendt contends that the morality of Socrates proved inadequate for ordinary political life and is "relevant only in times of crisis." She repeatedly cites examples from dissidents and opponents to the Nazi regime who explained their behavior by claiming, "I couldn't live with myself if I followed orders." For her, the Socratic "self as the ultimate criterion of moral conduct is politically a kind of emergency measure."