Dante Guevara

PHIL 1301.2501
March 02, 2010

Not Apologetic at All

The Greek word apologia could easily be confused with apologizing or asking for

forgiveness when in fact means explanation. The Apology is Plato’s contemplation and

explication of the trial of Socrates. In the trial Socrates demonstrate his character and

what kind of life he lived.

Socrates by going to trial defends himself; the first charges that aroused around

him due to general prejudices are that he is a physicalist because investigate things

beneath the earth and in the skies and that he is also a sophist because he makes the

weaker argument appear the stronger. Socrates argues, “that the accusations from which

arouse the slander […] he is guilty of wrongdoing in that he busies himself studying

things in the sky and below the earth; he makes the worse into the stronger argument, and

he teaches these same things to others” (emphasis added) (Cahn 30). Further from the

truth, Socrates was one of the Sophists’ keenest critics. According to Stumpf,

Socrates […] had a different motivation for his constant argumentation. He

was committed to the pursuit of truth and considered it his mission to seek out

the basis for stable and certain knowledge. He was also attempting to discover

the foundation for the good life. As he pursued his mission, Socrates devised a

method for arriving at truth, linking knowing and doing to each other in such

ways as to argue that to know the good is to do the good, that “knowledge is

virtue”. Unlike the Sophists, then, Socrates engaged in argumentation, in

“dialectic,” not for ends destructive of truth or to develop pragmatic skills

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 among lawyers and politicians, but to achieve creative concepts of truth and

goodness. (37)

The false view about Socrates appeared because people misunderstood his true

activities. He explained it by relating a story about the Delphic Oracle. In this saying, a

friend of Socrates went to the Oracle and inquired the priestess about who’s the wisest of

mortals and the priestess responded that Socrates was the most wise, and Socrates

claimed that he got surprised because he considered himself the most ignorant. To prove

this he sought someone wiser than he and began questioning various people including

politicians, lawyers, poets and craftsmen. In each discussion, the person claimed to have

absolute knowledge or wisdom. After a while, Socrates found out that the saying of the

Oracle that he is the most wise was truth because he was aware of his ignorance and

those who claimed knowledge in the sphere of values were ignorant of their ignorance.

He gained many adversaries in his lifetime because of the straightforwardness of his

views, especially on the government of Athens. According to Van Doren, “Socrates

[…] unlike the other sophist refused to take money for his teaching, claimed that he knew

nothing himself, although he knew how to argue and to ask hard questions, and he spent

his time interrogating his fellow citizens, and especially the professional sophists, who

claimed that they did know” (43).

After the death of the great Greek statesman Pericles, Athens became entangled

in power conflicts. Rich citizens who became wealthy under Pericles administration kept

pursuing affluence, and the state became increasingly materialistic, avaricious, and

soulless to the cultural advantages of which Athens had prided itself during the promising

years under Pericles. Socrates’ lifetime by going around and persuading both young and

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old to not care about their body or wealth and his constant criticism of the Athenian new

way of life based in pursuing as much wealth, reputation and honors as possible, while

not caring for search of wisdom, truth and the best possible state of the soul did not

endear him to many of the Athenians. Socrates saw himself as a Gadfly, a horsefly, that is

always distracting a horse, preventing him from going to sleep or staying inactive, like

him who was always going around the city inspiring conversations, thus preventing the

city from staying inactive, without looking for the truth and with a citizenry that thinks

that knows something when it doesn’t.

Over the years, this anger took the shape of an immense indignation against

Socrates. In The Book of Dead Philosophers, Simon Critchley describes that […]

Socrates was condemned to death on the trumped-up two charges of Meletus, Anytus and

Lycon: corrupting the youth of Athens and failing to revere the city’s gods. Socrates

always claimed to follow his own daimon, which was not some “inner voice,” but an

external sign or command that would suddenly cause him to stop in his tracks (xx).

Socrates tells the Athenians, that he wants to be judged according to his account

of himself and not by any other standard, such as consideration for being an old man or

the fact that he has children, as illustrated by the comment, “I am not born ‘from oak or

rock’ but from men , so that I have a family, indeed three sons […] I will not beg you to

acquit me by bringing them here” (Cahn 38).

Athenians, probably like most people in most places did not have much respect

for those who are brought to trial on serious offenses, or whose lives are threatened or

lost, except in defense of a noble cause. Socrates, from the accuser’s perspective does not

seem to be having his discussions about philosophy for a noble cause.

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 Socrates however, sees himself as a resemblance of Achilles, who willingly enters

into a fight even though he knows he will lose his life, as stated in his speech, “ [y]ou are

wrong sir, if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk

of life or death […] according to your view, all the heroes who died at Troy were inferior

people, especially the son of Thetis who was warned that if he killed Hector, he will die

also, for his death was to follow Hector’s. Hearing this, he despised death and danger and

was much more afraid to live a coward who did not avenge his friends” (Cahn 34,35).

Showing that he wishes to be judged and not forgiven, he insists that he will not give up

philosophy.

The jury gives the verdict of guilty, and Meletus asks for the penalty of death.

Socrates assesses the penalty and argues that should be something he deserves, and

because he spent his life freely offering his service to the city, he deserves free meals for

the rest of his life. Socrates also keeps mentioning to the Athenians that they should be

concerned about truth, wisdom and the state of their soul instead of their bodies, honor

and wealth. The jury votes again and sentences Socrates to death, he argues, “[…] that a

good man cannot be harmed either in life or death, and that his affairs are not neglected

by the gods. What has happened to me now has not happened of itself, but it is clear to

me that it was better to die now and to escape from trouble ” (Cahn 41).

At the age of seventy one, he drank the hemlock in compliance with the death

sentence brought upon him by the court that tried him. Socrates death can be seen as a

political, trial for entertainment and condemnation of an innocent renegade at

the hands of an authoritarian state.

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 Works Cited

Cahn, Steven M. Classics of Western Philosophy 7th Edition. Indianapolis/Cambridge:

Hacket Publishing Company, Inc. 2006.

Critchley, Simon The Book of Dead Philosophers. New York: First Vintage Book
Edition, Feb. 2009

Stumpf, Samuel E. Socrates to Sartre: A History of Philosophy 2nd Edition. United Stated
of America: McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1975.

Van Doren, Charles A History of Knowledge: Past, Present and Future. Madison Avenue,
New York, NY: Carol Publishing Group. 1991.

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