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Analysis Of Plato's Famous Philosophical Text 'Apology'

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Plato’s famous philosophical text, Apology, is the account of Socrates’ trial for attempting to corrupt the youth and challenging the popular belief in the Greek Gods. Socrates’ wisely stated during the trial that, “the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being” (Apology). His idea of the good life was a life in which one’s complete self seeks out the universal truths and if his ideas were applied to our modern society, they would still be largely applicable.
Socrates’ use of the phase ‘the unexamined life’ could have multiple meanings and applications. The most direct interpretation this phase would be someone who does not seek life’s answers and the universal truths as he does. Every day, Socrates’ questions those in the Athens …show more content…

By seeking the truths, we gain knowledge about many things. This will only help us throughout our lives as we encounter more experiences. Over time, the Greeks believed that the body lost vitality and when it ran out, we died. Plato said that, “As long as we have a body and our soul is fused with such an evil we shall never adequately attain what we desire, which we affirm to be the truth.” This shows that Plato believed that human beings had two components to them: a body and soul. Both must be given an appropriate amount of attention to keep them healthy. There are many things that can lead to an unhealthy body, such as disease, hunger, sleep deprivation, and much more. We must attempt to keep our bodies healthy, so we can seek truth. On less thought about side, we must also keep our souls healthy. There are three components of our soul: reason, spirit, and desire. One must attend to each in order to have a healthy soul. Each of these components acts as a slider that can go between just and unjust. If you regular practice reason/intellect, you can possess the virtue of wisdom. If not, you are ignorant. By being spirited and passionate, you can become courageous. If not, you possess cowardice. If you desire good things, such as the truths, then you possess self-discipline. If you let your desires obsess over many pleasures than you have immoderation. By obtaining …show more content…

I believe Socrates’ views on life can be used by many to improve their lives. Many people today have become so materialistic in way that is unhealthy for the soul. People neglect their soul and do whatever they please because they think a life full of pleasures is a good life. This is not true though, a good life in today’s society is one that is lived in a modified Socratic way. We must continue to seek the universal truths and become a more complete human being as Socrates said, but also find a way to incorporate technology to benefit ourselves and not hinder us. Winifred Gallagher states that “the targets of your attention are the building blocks of your life” (Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life). This is what modern technology attempts to tap into. Companies exploit our biological attention sense in order to make more money. This is only creating a distraction from our goal of seeking the truth of life. We must try to repress our desires to use this unproductive technology with our self-discipline and know how to use our technology to aid in our search for truths. The internet allows us to gain immense amount of knowledge that Socrates could have never dreamed of, yet it means nothing unless we can control ourselves and seek the knowledge that is truly important. In conclusion, technology should be positively applied to help us

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Anish Yonjan Philosophy 1301-73426 Prof. Marcos Arandia Feb. 19, 2017 Explain and evaluate Socrates' claim in the Apology that "the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being," and briefly analyze and discuss the particular method he uses to discover the truth (i.e., dialectics or the Socratic Method), using at least two examples from Plato's Euthyphro and/or Apology. Do you agree that a human being cannot live a fully satisfying life if he or she remains ignorant, like the slavish prisoners in Plato's cave? Why or why not? In the Plato’s Apology, Socrates claims that the “unexamined life is not worth living for a human being”.

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He mentioned that he would worship the idea of asking them questions, discuss his sufferings to others. He believed that he would win either way because he would be living a better life of finding out who is wide and he could continue his search for true and false knowledge. His arguments are valid because after he states his beliefs, he explains why he thinks what he thinks to be true. He created the theory of, “Either death is a state of nothing ness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world by another” (Plato).

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Examining one’s life can bring many joys. There are many things that give people the idea that their lives are meaningful. These ideas could be the pursuit of pleasure and happiness, entertainment, sports, power and money, possessions and security, being famous and success, meeting other people, knowledge and every other thing that can give the smallest amount of happiness to the person. In the apology Plato describes Socrates’ venture to question people would were wise and content with their wisdom, but when they asked a series of questions to test their wisdom they were revealed not to be wise and were now upset. The flaw in that was that these people did not examine what had happened to them and did not learn from it.

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With those two teachings, comes another one of his more deeply meaningful quotes “an unexamined life is not worth living for a human being”. This statement by Socrates is one that gets a human being to think about what he meant by what an examined life or unexamined life is. His quote is telling people to go through life and analyze and question things, because if not they have not lived life the way it should be for a human being. Without examining life, life would become a stagnant environment, never evolving from past cultures and past ideals.

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Socrates & Snowden Socrates was a true believer that true pleasure only comes when individuals live a moral life. He believed that an individual’s inner life, or the soul, is the most important part of life. Each person must keep his or her soul healthy, by seeking truth, self-knowledge, justice, and goodness. Socrates believed that any soul in search of fame, wealth, and power becomes ignorant, sickly, and weak (Claudia, 270). He was concerned with strengthening his inner self by examining and criticizing it.

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Socrates was a man that was in search of the truth about wisdom. However, it became more then just a search when it brought him to trail of accusations. As a philosopher Socrates was known to overdrawn ideas and to frustrate anyone he was talking to. He is always in search of a better idea and for anyone who has experienced Socrates could assume he is making up his own actualities. This becomes evident in “ Apology” written by Plato, where Socrates was brought in charges for corrupting the minds of the youth and not believing in the Gods.

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  I would argue that Socrates is influencing the audience and the people who will read his case to become more philosophical. He has a purpose

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Here is my first piece of evidence to support my point. “I happen to be a gift of the god to the city; and this is how you can tell: Unlike most people, I have neglected all my own interests, and I’ve put up with this private neglect for so many years, while always attending to your business.” (Lines 108-111) In the quote stated above, Socrates claims that even with the annoyance people found in him, he pursued in his mission to help the people. Even though he had to give up his interests and hobbies, he did not give up his mission and focused on his work with the people all those years.

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In spite of that, I though the way that Socrates explained his idea with a series of events was very interesting. I perfectly understood the beginning of the story, but I ceased to find that connection between the beginning and the end. Since the ideas of Socrates were very complex and difficult to understand, this story made think too much in order to make a logical conclusion However, what I understood the most was "how humans adapt to everything. The perception of reality may be different for each person depending on the situation they find themselves in. Reality is subject to change as time goes by, your perspective of reality will be different from that of others depending on the events that you experience.

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aligns with reason and resists the desires of the appetite. It is in this part of the soul where the courage to be good is found. In the unjust soul, the spirit ignores reason and instead aligns with the appetitive desires, manifesting as the demand for the pleasures of the body. Plato asserts that the wise and just soul allows reason to govern the other parts, while the unwise and unjust soul allows conflict between the parts.12 Just as there is the appetitive part of the soul—the largest part of the soul—there is the productive class, or the workers, who have souls of bronze and account for the largest part of the population.13 This class includes the general population of laborers, plumbers, masons, carpenters, merchants, and farmers.

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Socrates is quoted as stating, “An unexamined life is a life not worth living” (38 a). Socrates was a founding figure of western philosophy, and a stable for many ideas. He lived in Athens, Greece teaching his students, like Plato, questioning politics, ethical choices, and many other things in Greek society. In the Trial and death of Socrates: Four Dialogues by Plato, it explores the abstract questioning Socrates had towards many of the normal social properties, which led to his trial, resulting in his death. The most important aspects discussed in the dialogues is the questioning of what is pious and impious, what it means to be wise, and good life.

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The trial and death of Socrates is a book with four dialogues all about the trail that leads to the eventual death of Socrates. The four dialogues are Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo. It will explain the reasoning that brought Socrates to trial in the first place and give us a glimpse into the physiological thought of this time, and in this paper will describe some of the differences today. The first of the four dialogues are Euthyphro.

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Socrates’ original argument was not valid or sound. The premises were corrected but the argument needed another premise to make the conclusion true. Adding premise two takes away any confusion there was to what immortality meant. Since Socrates’ spent almost the entire book creating a just person and a just city the information about what is good and bad for a soul makes sense. It also makes sense that those things cannot destroy the soul because injustice and other vices could only lead the body to make poor choices and possibly get sick or die from those poor choices.

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