SOURCE: "Socrates's Rejection of Retaliation," in Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher, Cornell University Press, 1991, pp. 179-99.

In the following excerpt from a lecture originally delivered in 1986, Vlastos describes the aspects of ancient Greek morality related to retaliation and the concept that harming one's enemy or social inferior is acceptable. He traces Greek attitudes toward enemies through ancient mythology and literature in order to demonstrate the significance of Socrates's view that we should never do an injustice, specifically in retaliation for an injustice done to us. Vlastos goes on to delineate and discuss the five Socratic principles related to injustice.

If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.

(Matt. 6:23)

In the last and most famous of his Theses on Feuerbach Marx observes: "The philosophers have done no more than interpret the world. The point, however, is to change it." Substitute "morality" for...