Apology: Is Socrates Being A Sophist?

1. What are the specific charges brought against Socrates, and why do you think he was so charged? Is Socrates being charged with being a sophist? Is he being accused of offering scientific explanations for religious matters? Explain.
Throughout “Apology”, we see Socrates pointing out the different charges placed on him by individuals who he does not actually know, by approaching and responding to each one separately. For the most part, what all of the charges imply that Socrates is going around and spreading a new, and out of the norm, type of knowledge to people. For example, one of the charges was that he does not believe in the traditional gods, but rather has scientific explanations for several phenomena’s. “Socrates is guilty of wrongdoing

Actually, Socrates even mentions that corrupting the youth would, essentially, mean that he corrupted himself; I relate this to the idea of karma. Additionally, Socrates defends himself by telling the jury that “If one asks them what he does [Socrates] and what he teaches to corrupt them, they are silent, as they do not know, but, so as not to appear at a loss” (Plato, 23d). This argument alone is powerful and extremely convincing; in my opinion, it shuts others up instantly. However, Socrates does go even further by saying that if he did, in a way, corrupt the youth it was not intentional and that he would not be the only one. This argument is as well undoubted because Socrates insists that if he were the only individual who corrupted the youth then it would be a “very happy state of affairs” (Plato, 25b), which was not the

However, these teachers have an interesting twist to them; they actually charge others with a fee for their lessons. In society they played a prestigious and professional role, as they were seen as, somewhat, powerful in their ability to move others. In general, their main goal was to use persuasion through language to make individuals wiser when it comes to political situations, arguments, or even enhance their reputation. Although it is hard to draw a line between sophists and philosophers, especially for an outsider (like myself) who is neither of the two, there are still small distinctions. For one, as mentioned previously, sophists requested a fee. Plus, philosophers, in my opinion, focus on deeper sciences and concepts about humans and the earth as a whole. Whereas, sophists zoom in more on an individual scale and teach their definition of virtue to others. In other words, I like to think of sophists as teachers while philosophers are students-who are constantly studying and elaborating on concepts or religious matters, while increasing their expertise/knowledge. In my judgment, I don’t see sophists as bad people, but I don’t necessarily see them as good either. The reason I say this is because they aren’t tremendously harming anyone if others are willing to learn from them. However, they are manipulating