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Virtues: Philosophy Issues an Article & Discourse in Review Essay The newspaper article from the Huffington Post on virtue by Jonathan Merritt entitled “New York Times Columnist David Brooks Explores Sin, Virtue in New Book ‘The Road to Character’” is very interesting. To summarize the article, David Brooks is being interviewed and questioned regarding his so-called unconventional beliefs as a conservative in terms of his ideas about virtue. Basically, according to Merritt, Brooks feels that virtue has only been expressed by just a “handful” of hero-types who were model of morality. In the article according to Merritt (2015) Brooks is quoted as saying he believes our modern-day society is devoid of any semblance of virtue because it is a selfish ‘me-first’ mentality, and that “human nature is biased in the direction of self-centeredness” (“New York Times Columnist”). The article conveys Brooks’ belief that virtue has faded from society especially over the last twenty or thirty years. The summary of the article herein can be compared to what was discussed in class. However, in terms of Socrates and his trials, the article may be compared or contrasted to Socrates’ condemnation and that his present-day peers believed him to be a philosopher who corrupted the youth. In agreement with the Huffington Post newspaper article, however, it seems to be true to the mind of this writer that virtue has basically disappeared from socie According to one write-up, Socrates’ students Plato and Xenophon, actually demonstrated their teacher in a positive light. But, the article posits, that historians believe Socrates upstanding character had been tainted to the point of legal condemnation due to the political climate in 399 B.C.E. Athens. After giving a brief background about Socrates and the situation, the article continues to outline the events of the trial beginning with a public oratorical summons for the philosopher/teacher to appear before the magistrates. Apparently, under the auspices of the socio-political system at the time any person could bring an initial ‘charge’ about someone, which would escalate into a criminal proceeding. Thus, the summons delivered by the poet Meletus “to Socrates in the presence of witnesses,” thereby mandating his appearance before the legal authorities – in order to answer to the charges of “impiety and corrupting the youth” (“Trial of Socrates”). In terms of the publicly reflected protocol the Athenian society fared virtues of a somewhat truly democratic society, given the factor that Meletus could start the process of accusation in the first place. To really wrap one’s head around the idea, consider the following. The situation fast-forwarded to the modern times of today, would represent a parallel in which anybody could accuse a senator or high-ranking popular figure, and publicly ‘charge’ him or her, thereby setting into motion a criminal investigation. Everybody knows that the power-elite in the globally driven society of today would never abide by this kind of standards. In terms of society’s virtues, or understanding of it – whether de jure or de facto – even a well-known or respected artist or writer could not see results by merely verbally accusing a highly regarded public figure escalating into formal criminal charges. In any case, the sculptor’s son had garnered the reputation as a liberal politician. The article suggests that Socrates indeed was perhaps regarded as “history’s first” liberal politician foisting his beliefs that the masses deserved liberty, and not just “property-owning aristocrats” (“Trial of Socrates”). Maybe this factor is a huge clue why the trial seem to find firmly cultivated fertile ground to carry out the criminal charges against him, in the first place, because his ideas of everyone being entitled to virtue’s powers irritated the elite. They may have felt threatened to the point where decisions were made to silence Socrates. According to
