Primary Text:
Crito
Question:
What does Socrates think about opinions?
Answer:
We should follow the opinion of the one man who has understanding not the many.
Socrates believes that we should not follow the opinion of the majority, but rather the judgment of the one who truly understands justice. Just as we trust a trained expert in matters of the body, we must trust the knowledgeable person in matters of the soul. The many can hold opinions, but only knowledge determines what is truly just or unjust. Therefore, moral decisions should be based on reason and understanding, not popular opinion.
“Well said. So with other matters, not to enumerate them all, and certainly with actions just and unjust, shameful and beautiful, good and bad, about which we are now deliberating, should we follow the opinion of the many and fear it, or that of the one, if there is one who has knowledge of these things and before whom we feel fear and shame more than before all the others. If we do not follow his directions, we shall harm and corrupt that part of ourselves that is improved by just actions and destroyed by unjust actions. Or is there nothing in this?” (Crito 47d)
Reference:
Plato (1997). Plato: Complete Works. Hackett Publishing. https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781603846707
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