PHIL 101 Lecture 2: Reading Questions 2- Gadfly:Aristotle
Document Summary
Part 1: socrates first introduces the idea of being a gadfly in his speech in his court case, when it is being decided if he is guilty and what his punishment is. Being a gadfly, he says, is exactly what it sounds like. He is a gadfly to the city of athens in the same way an actual gadfly annoys and sort of awakes a horse, which is much larger than itself. King furthers this idea in his letter written from when he was in birmingham jail; king refers to socrates and his idea of the gadfly, and says he feels the same way. The idea of a gadfly is basically referring to a very small minority bugging the bigger power to pay attention to what they"re saying, because the gadfly thinks the greater power needs to be awoken from their ignorance.
