The main difference between Socrates and Thoreau was the their views on the relationship between people and government. Socrates believed that the people are work for the government. They are supposed to obey the orders of the government and serve the government to the best of their abilities. On the contrary, Thoreau believed that the people shouldn’t do everything the government says. He thought that the government did only bad things such as slavery …showed first 75 words of 489 total…

…showed last 75 words of 489 total…trying to do what’s best for the people (well, most of the time). Again, the economic, social and scientific developments have made people’s lives better. Thoreau’s philosophies would be very unnecessary. In fact, if everybody followed Thoreau’s beliefs, there would be too much unnecessary commotion and uproar. As we can see, both Socrates’ and Thoreau’s philosophies worked well under their special circumstances but would not work in today’s society