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Plato's Apology Analysis Essay

1397 Words6 Pages

Moriah R. Emrick
Dr. Miller
Philosophy 1301.906
13 February
Plato’s Apology - Analysis In Plato’s Apology, one of the big ideas discussed by Socrates is his role as someone who asks searches for answers regardless of the consequences. At the beginning of Plato’s Apology Socrates explains his bad reputation and starts by talking about how he angered some important people. Socrates explains what started this journey by explaining how a friend of his, Chaerephon asked the oracle in Delphi if there was anyone wiser than Socrates and the oracle stated that there was no man wiser than him. When he found out that the oracle of Delphi declared him the wisest man he wanted to find out whether or not this was correct so he searched to find a man wiser …show more content…

Plato’s Apology is a somewhat long piece of text and it can be easy to get lost as to what is happening in the story. This passage is a good landline to help the reader remind the main subjects being addressed in the trial. The big ideas discussed in the paragraphs above are shown in this passage. Socrates' inquisitive and challenging nature is shown in how he pushes against his accuser's biases against him. Socrates also shows his lack of fear in freely saying what he believes is true even at the cost of death in the way he mocks his accusers. He especially mocks Meletus throughout the whole of the text which can be seen also in the key passage where he facetiously says “not that I mean to say anything disparaging of anyone who is a student of natural philosophy. I should be very sorry if Meletus could lay that to my charge” (Plato, pg. 3). Socrates' lack of remorse for telling the truth is also likely a factor in his being condemned to …show more content…

The basic idea of the play is that Antigone the main character by the same name gives her brother a proper burial even at the cost of her own life against the orders of her uncle king Creon. Antigone’s brother Polynices and his brother Etecoles fought over the throne in Thebes but both died leaving Creon as king. Creon refused to let Polynices be properly buried or grieved because he considered him a traitor for marching against Thebes to try and take the throne from Etecoles. Antigone went against her uncle's orders despite the threats of death by stoning to do what she thought was morally right. Antigone gets caught by a guard trying to bury her brother and Creon tries to plead with Antigone but she will not budge or feel remorse for what she has done. The story ends tragically with a majority of the characters dying in the end, however, the crux of the story is not the ending but the moral

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People are often averse to the truth. Plato wrote “The Apology” in order illuminate the hostility towards real truth because he believed he had an obligation to reveal how easily thought could be manipulated. Plato documents Socrates’s final address to the jury before he is due for execution. Socrates had been accused of using such embellished language throughout his explanations that he had caused a severe confusion to the people and then an eventual embarrassment; thus, allowing the people to reject what Socrates had been trying to preach. This creates a dismissal of Socrates’ ideas throughout the people and generates an even greater divide of thought.

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