Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail and Plato's Apology
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To compare Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail with Plato's Apology is to compare two statements of ethical theory that in a number of ways overlap and converge. Each text discusses the nature of justice and injustice and what it means to challenge injustice. The texts are partly alike, too, politically; each is presented by a recognized authority (in Socrates' case) or leader (in King's case) who is beset with political unpopularity. Socrates says very directly that he has "many enemies of the worst and most dangerous kind" (39), and the Letter is a response to the eight Alabama clergymen who publicly criticized as "unwise and untimely" his protests in Birmingham aimed at desegregating public accommodations as a matter of national policy and law (Where passim). And the texts are alike from an analytical standpoint, systematically dissecting and pretty much destroying arguments against them.But there are differences as well. The Apology is Socrates' valedictory; Plato is reconstructing the last Socratic dialogue for all time, since the occasion for it is the execution that follows Socrates' conviction on charges of atheism and youth corruption. King's Letter is not a valedictory (that was to come in Memphis in 1968) but rather a call to conscience, much in the manner of a sermon, and a sermon all the more important because it is a response to colleagues in the clergy. The fact that both the Letter and the Apology arise in the context of hotly contested issues shows that
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sts. That relationship is one that perpetually interrogates and challenges the status quo. For if injustice is a matter of public policy, then it has assumed importance because of what it implies about the state's role in creating and supporting injustice.
The antagonistic relationship between the philosopher and the state on one hand and the philosopher and sophist on the other is vividly demonstrated by Socrates' perilous choices offered in the Apology. The situation there is that if Socrates will stop provoking people into admitting that their ideas are wrong-headed, then he can go free. A perfect political solution. Or if he must provoke, since he is so fond of doing that, let him do it in exile, safely away from Athens, where he is causing all this trouble. A perfect bit of sophism. But Socrates, as a philosopher, sees the political trap, just as he sees the contradiction hidden behind the sophistic argument. It does not take a genius to figure out that if Athens can exile him, so can other cities: "what a life should I lead . . . wandering from city to city . . . For I am quite sure that into whatever place I go . . . young men will come to me; and . . . their elders will drive me out" (Apology 58). As for becoming free and
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Approximate Word count = 1838
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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