道德、法律与苏格拉底之死

传统美德向何处去 ?这是智者时代城邦的根本问题 ,也是苏格拉底的问题。从制度的本性上说 ,曾经繁荣的雅典城邦是不可避免要灭亡的 ,除非它能够在开放的意义上落实其德性。而苏格拉底的高明之处就是发现了这条道路 ,智者却只从非道德的法律制度上探寻出路。苏格拉底与智者的冲突实质上是德治与法治之争。苏格拉底在与智者的冲突中高尚地死去。

Morality,Law and the Death of Socrates

Where the traditional virtue is going was not only one of the fundamental questions of the city-state in Sophists' times but Socrates' question as well. As far as the nature of institution is concerned, the once prosperous Athens was doomed to perish, unless the city-state put its virtue into effect in openness. The wisdom of Socrates lay in that he found the way out, while the Sophists only sought for ways in legal systems without any ideas of virtue. Consequently the point of argument between Socrates and the Sophists was a question to rule by morality or to rule by law. Socrates died nobly in this collision.