Innocence Of Socrates Research Paper

The Innocence of Socrates
All who study Philosophy and more specifically Classical Philosophy know of the great philosopher Socrates. Studying Socrates through the dialogues of Plato provide us with an explanation to modern philosophy and its beginnings. Plato wrote many dialogues concerning Socrates life and his teachings with the Athenian population. The teachings that Socrates orated at the time were considered antithetical to the Athenian way of life. Socrates was tried in a court of Athens for impiety, corrupting the youth of Athens, and for studying the things under the earth and in the Heavens. Of his accusers Meletus, Lycon, and Anytus, Socrates fears none of them. Socrates is most concerned with the oldest accuser, Aristophanes who

Socrates asks the crowd of jurors, especially the ones who have heard his lectures whether he has taught such things out loud. Today we would refer to this sort of defense as anecdotal. Socrates does not outright claim that he does not teach these things, only that he has no knowledge of them. In Clouds, Socrates is portrayed as accepting money for spouting his nonsense. Socrates refutes this claim by simply saying that he has nothing to teach that would require money. Socrates is often compared with sophists who were teachers in Greece who taught the youth of Athens the art of flowery rhetoric. The plaintiffs in this case are angry that Socrates has taught the youth of Athens to think for themselves. Socrates draws an example in an exchange with Meletus. The example Socrates uses is that of a horse trainer. A horse trainer has extensive knowledge of the well-being of horses, Socrates also mentions in line 24b that he believes in daimonia which are novel. Meletus brings up the charge that Socrates does not believe in the gods. Rather than addressing this again as Socrates has already proven that he believes in the religion of Athens by his reaction to the Oracle at Delphi’s prophecy; Socrates takes another approach to the subject matter. He tells the jury the Meletus is doing them an injustice since Meletus does not really care whether

In fact, Socrates thought very little of the politicians as he thought they had very little to offer in the realm of knowledge. Socrates should see the state of contemporary American politics. Socrates went on to the poets in attempt to find one wiser than himself. Socrates found that the poets can create masterpieces of literature and art, but were unable to explain them. Line 22b “I soon recognized that they do not make what they make by wisdom, but by some sort of nature and while inspired, like the diviners and those who deliver oracles… but they know nothing of what they speak”. This leads Socrates to believe that these works were not inspired by wisdom, but of some other source. Socrates does not distinguish what this source is. Socrates continues under line 22c “I perceived that they supposed, on account of their poetry, that they were the wisest of human beings also in the other things, in which they were not”. Socrates findings concerning the artisans were that they had detailed knowledge of their