Is doing right a matter of keeping the rule, or of producing the better outcome? Keep the rule and someone suffers; break it for the outcome and the heart is uneasy. If a principle must hold even when a good result beckons, what is the reason?
THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS
With 'for a better outcome,' do I justify crossing a line that should not be crossed?
THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL
οὐδαμῶς ἄρα δεῖ ἀδικεῖν
📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER
Then we ought never to do wrong at all, in any way.
💡 TL;DR
To Crito, Socrates insisted that we must never do wrong, however good the end may look.
📝The Classic Answers
To Crito, Socrates insisted that we must never do wrong, however good the end may look. The scale of outcomes is always alluring. If breaking a rule could make someone happier, that path seems right. But a good result cannot erase a wrong. Before the lure of outcomes, I choose first to recall that the right lies not in rule or result alone but in a line that must not be crossed.
— ONGO · Curator
🌱Apply It Today
If a choice today is one you'd pass off as 'the result is good,' erase the result and ask whether the means itself is right.
📖 Classic Source:
Socrates (Plato, Crito).
Ancient text in the public domain; rendered and interpreted independently by ONGO.
The film is honored as an equal questioner; its plot is rendered only as a universal dilemma. The classic source is an ancient text (Public Domain), and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
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A Bridge Between Eras — the wisdoms this question threads
Reading the new through the old — classics this question awakens.
