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Analyzing Plato's Version Of Socrates Apology

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Ironically, Socrates by no means puts forth an “Apology” with respect to the current definition of the word, in fact, he elucidates that he is not sorry for his actions. The title “Apology” refers to the Greek word “apologia” which translates roughly to “a defense of a belief”. To effectively analyze this Plato’s version of Socrates’ unrehearsed speech, it is important to recognize its three main parts. First, Socrates defends himself against the accusations, “there are two classes of my accusers-one those who have just brought their accusation, the others those who, brought it long ago”. Second, Socrates responds to the verdict and proposes a punishment. Finally, Socrates responds to the punishment put before him. (Need to throw something …show more content…

As you may notice, not a single person shall answer and even if they had, according to Socrates, they would not be telling the truth. Socrates then explains that he acquired this sullied reputation and prejudice against him due to the fact he has this unique wisdom, a wisdom that stems from recognizing how little one knows and that one still has much to learn. In this wisdom, Socrates is considered the wisest per Chaerephon’s inquiry to the priestess of Apollo at Delphi, Pythia, who’s unable to lie. With this wisdom, Socrates’ questioned the men with the most reputation (politicians, poets, and artisans) realizing they all share a common flaw; a mindset that since they have skill in their individual crafts they are also wise in important matters, outside their craft, when they are not. The fact that Socrates brought this to light is the reason for the prejudice against him. On Socrates’ journey to determine the wise and reveal those who are not wise to the gods, young men, sons of the rich, began to follow his crusade and examine people on their own accord. The questioned became angered with Socrates and accused him of “corrupting the youth”. Their accusations against Socrates stem from the idea that he corrupts the youth although they are unable to answer the question, what is it that Socrates is doing/teaching? Thus, to avoid feeling foolish, they attack the philosopher aspect of Socrates saying that he does not believe in gods and makes weak arguments stronger through persuasion. To sum up, Socrates provides a defense against the accusers on the basis that he has not taught or done anything but follow the path of aiding the

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In the Apology by Plato, Socrates defends himself against his accusers in court, and begins by declaring that he is not an especially great speaker but that he only speaks the truth. In this, he tells his accusers that they should not fear him but only the truth itself. In the depiction of Socrates' last speech, he makes a bold claim that he has been deemed the wisest man in Athens by the god of Delphi ( Plato, ., Jowett, n.d. ). He goes on to explain that while he searched for those that thought themselves wise,

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Euthyphro tries to explain him that he was doing the same as Zeus did to his father and therefore being pious. But Socrates argues that it is just an example and not an explanation. He tries again and says what gods like is pious and what they dislike is not. But Socrates points out the fallacy in that argument that one god might not agree with another to which he replies in his third attempt what all gods like is pious and what they all hate is impious. Here, in this example we can see that how he searches for a concrete and complete definition for being pious.

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The version of Socrates presented in both The Apology, Crito, and The Republic could very well be two different versions of Socrates as presented by Plato. However, both versions of Socrates have one thing in common: they both value the importance of philosophy and they both defend philosophy as something that is important to humanity. The Apology is Socrates defending not only himself, but also philosophy as an area of study that could be useful to the city of Athens. Socrates is trying to defend himself and his study and he tries to distance himself from the sophists in that they charge for money.

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Reflection 1 Liuying Huang Part I: Q1: what are the accusations against Socrates in the Euthyphro and Apology? There is more than one layer of accusations against Socrates in Euthyphro and Apology, where he was charged with: 1) Impious, for not worshipping or acknowledging the gods of Athens. Instead, Socrates went for a different set of “divine” new ideas created by himself and got charged for introducing new gods.

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Plato’s Apology is in the words of Socrates. The apology explains what Socrates though of death as he awaited his death after being condemned for not believing in God. He believed after death, one would either go to another world or be in a state of nothingness. He had the theory of death being a place where one would learn about life and talk to people that no longer walk the Earth. He supports his argument that death is a gain by explaining that he, Socrates, will get to speak to famous poets and past heroes.

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With the Apology, and the Crito, Socrates comes to delve into his many teachings and finds himself put to death with the words of wisdom that have been passed down generation after generation. Socrates for many in this present day is a man of many words and great teachings, but anyone but Socrates thought differently, in Athens people thought of him as an annoyance rather than an integral part of society. As Socrates stood in front of the counsel of judges, he stood for what he thought was right and never changed opinion of himself or of his words. That’s why Socrates is still talked about in classrooms everywhere today.

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Socrates was a greek philosopher who found himself in trouble with his fellow citizens and court for standing his grounds on his new found beliefs from his studies about philosophical virtue, justice, and truth. In “Apology” written by Plato, Socrates defended himself in trial, not with the goal of escaping the death sentence, but with the goal of doing the right thing and standing for his beliefs. With this mindset, Socrates had no intention of kissing up to the Athenians to save his life. Many will argue that Socrates’ speech was not very effective because he did not fight for his life, he just accepted the death sentence that he was punished with. In his speech he said, “But now it’s time to leave, time for me to die and for you to live.”

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New accusers say that Socrates corrupts the youth and does not believe in the gods of the State, and has new divinities of his own. To defend himself against these charges, Socrates asks Meletus some questions. As a result, Meletus is shown to be contradicting himself and making accusations that are absolutely absurd. To the question “Who are the improvers of the youth?” Meletus replies that they are all citizens, but not Socrates, arguing that he is only one who is corrupting them.

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He contends that he can’t be considered liable for the supposed defilement since he has not professed to have any wisdom. Socrates states, “I neither know it in fact, nor think that I do” (The Apology, 21d). Instead, his tenacious quest for truth through the Socratic method is established in his craving to uncover the ignorance of others, as well as his own. For example, Socrates states, “Because all I do is to go about, persuading you young and old alike, not to care for your bodies or for your wealth so intensely as for the greatest possible wellbeing of your souls” (The Apology, 30b). Here, Socrates underscores his concern for the spiritual and intellectual development of the Athenians, representing his devotion to their

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For this week's journal entry, I would like to bring up the idea of "wisdom" in reference to Plato's Apology.  Personally, I find that the way in which Socrates defends is wisdom is admirable, and although it leads to the verdict of him being killed, I think that this decision and the reaction by Socrates helps define wisdom. Socrates, in essence, says that he does not fear death because he is wise.  No one knows what death is -- perhaps it may be the best thing a person gets to experience. However, a person that is unwise would approach death into thinking that it is the worst thing that can happen in life.

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Here is another piece of evidence to support my point. “Because I’m well aware that wherever I go, the young people will listen to what I say, as they do here. If I antagonize them, they’ll drive me out by persuading their elders to do so.” (Lines 142-144) In this quote, Socrates is saying that even if he approaches the young ones with his ideas and philosophies, at a certain point they will come to a dislike of him and try anything at any cost to drive him away.

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Making enemies and becoming the topic of conversation, the Athenians began to view Socrates as a threat to their beliefs and way of life and sought to end it. In order to end this, Socrates was accused of blasphemy (Mod1SlideC7). Socrates’s accusers took him to court and after Socrates did not play their game by asking to be sent into exile, and in the end, he was sentenced to death. After reading the textbook and Plato’s writing influenced by Socrates, I realized that in the period of his life Socrates was indeed truly a threat to the Athens society, because he looked for answers that no one else bothered to find which challenged their culture.

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In Apology, Socrates faces possible execution as he stands trial in front of his fellow Athenian men. This jury of men must decide whether Socrates has acted impiously against the gods and if he has corrupted the youth of Athens. Socrates claims in his defense that he wants to live a private life, away from public affairs and teachings in Athens. He instead wants to focus on self-examination and learning truths from those in Athens through inquiry. Socrates argues that "a [man] who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if [he] is to survive for even a short time" (32a).

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His personal defense is described in works two of his students: Xenophon and Plato. Both of them wrote papers called Apology, which is the Greek word for “defense”. In this essay I used Apology by Plato as the main resource, since it contents a more full account of the trial of Socrates and his words. Despite the fact that the philosopher attempted to defend himself and explain the reasons for saying and doing the things he did, it did not do any good for his justification. On the contrary, Socrates’ words seemed to make the jury harden their hearts and condemn him.

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