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The Individual and the Community

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The Individual and the Community
This paper will give insight into the different views of three different philosophers with a never-ending struggle to keep a balance between the community and the Individual. By explaining their views he/she will find different definitions from the philosophers on how to live as an individual under a ruler and how a good citizen should be characterized. For example in Antigone a good citizen would not have gone against the law and buried their sibling in one of the philosopher eyes, but in another’s it made Antigone find happiness so the deed would be cleared and would make it ok.
A philosopher of Athens named Socrates believed one could only judge him/herself, if he/she knows what is good or bad in their own eyes. “…Crito, why should we care so much about public opinion?” says Socrates in Plato’s ‘Crito’. Socrates compared the individual ‘Crito’ to the state or community. In his eyes all men/women make up a state or community. Life without questioning and examination isn’t worth living because by questioning you learn the answers to the questions you originally had. Learning results to knowledge and knowledge is what makes a good leader. Socrates believed a good ruler was one who listened to his people and when the people of the community came to him/her with issues he/she would sort them out with the best intellect he/she could give, including what was right while also abiding by the law. To Socrates a good citizen was one who asked him/herself everyday “What was the greater good?” By asking this question he/she would go out and find different answers to that question in everything he/she does.
During the Golden Age a philosopher names Plato came about. He so happened to be a student of Socrates. Being that Socrates never wrote anything down their views on life is impossible to contrast. In comparison to Socrates, Plato viewed

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