Politics

Combat Literature: When attacking power and pursuing freedom can cost you your life

"Freedom consists in only one thing: being masters of one's own life," wrote Plato in the 4th century BC. The Greek philosopher knew what he was talking about, because his teacher, Socrates (Athens, 470 BC-399 BC), had paid a high price for refusing to keep silent about his convictions: a court forced him to poison himself with hemlock, accused of corrupting young people both for his atheism and for political reasons. The philosopher's trial was so notorious that Plato Apology of Socrates (Bernat Metge Foundation, 1924; trans. Joan Crexells). This is one of the founding texts of classical Greece that has contributed to consolidating one of the essential impulses of part of the literary and philosophical tradition: the denunciation of injustice, the criticism of power and the yearning for freedom, whether personal or collective.

"Freedom consists in only one thing: being masters of one's own life," wrote Plato in the 4th century BC. The Greek philosopher knew what he was talking about, because his teacher, (Athens, 470 BC-399 BC), had paid a high price for refusing to keep silent about his convictions: a court forced him to poison himself with hemlock, accused of corrupting young people both for his atheism and for political reasons. The philosopher's trial was so notorious that Plato (Bernat Metge Foundation, 1924; trans.

). This is one of the founding texts of classical Greece that has contributed to consolidating one of the essential impulses of part of the literary and philosophical tradition: the denunciation of injustice, the criticism of power and the yearning for freedom, whether personal or collective..