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Socrates Guilty Analysis

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Is Socrates Guilty In my essay I will guide a reader to the period in which Socrates was accused and sentenced to death penalty and together we will endeavour to answer the question whether he was or he was not guilty. Although the topic is to enomoursly extent controversial and a lot of similar works were written, I will do my best to present consistent and logical judgement of Socrates. 399 BC was a year when Socrates had a defending speech in front of the judges, his accusers and the jury. Athenian Law being democratic provides such a posibility for the accused one to have a chance to point out on inconsitencies in accusation or give evidences in one’s own defence. Socrates was speaking in an accustommed manner: asking provoking questions, …show more content…

So I asked myself if it was really so dangerous for the citizen of Ancient Athens to have divinities of your own. And the brief paper of John A. Scott “Why Meletus Demanded the Death Penalty for Socrates” where he investigates the same issue helped me to clear it out. In his work, he has a sentance from Professor Wheeler’ Alexander the Great:” Religion simply was the state, and the state was religion. Impiety was treason, and all treason involved impiety…” So in what way Socrates did not comply with the state’s gods he was supposed to believe in? Originally, what gave rise to his activity of walking around the city with a purpose of finding someone who possess wisdom greater than he had himself, was the provision of the oracle of Apollo that ‘there is no one wiser than Socrates’. Socrates hastened to interprete that as he is the wisest, however different interpretetions of oracle’s could have been done. Interpretations Socrates did not consider are: if there were no one wiser than Socrates that could mean that a) all man are equally wise, and, b) undefined number are as wise as Socrates. Anyway, Socrates endeavoured to challenge Pythian prophecy, which already could have been considered as an act of impiety by the common people. Additionaly, Socrates claimed to have been possessing the divine providence that restrained him from perfoming certain actions but never urged him to do anything, and that same voice did not restrain him from questening people and pointing out they know

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305 Words | 2 Pages

Socrates defended himself well during the trial. I do not think that Socrates was guilty for anything. He was accused by Meletus for "corrupting the young”. However, there was no evidence of this. Socrates mentioned that there was no youth to testify that they were corrupted by him.

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835 Words | 4 Pages

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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802 Words | 4 Pages

Comparing Socrates words in the Republic for the philosopher to rule to the words of the Apology where philosophy is viewed as something that is punishable by death, this is where the defense or importance of philosophy is realized. For if the philosophers were the ones to rule, nobody would question whether or not what they were doing was right or wrong because the philosopher-kings make the rules through wisdom and knowledge. Plato wants to paint a portrait of the philosopher as not only something the city should want to have, but also as someone who would be fit to rule above all others. This contrasts, again, to the points made by the jurors to Socrates in the Apology for they saw Socrates as someone who brings the city

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559 Words | 3 Pages

The first concept that I noticed shared by Russell and Socrates was the concept that one had to remove themselves before serious philosophical contemplation could take place. In Russell 's case, he refers to the "Self" and the "Not-Self". With Socrates, as seen in the Apology, confronting his accuser about the corruption of youth, his accuser is silent because he had not given the matter any thought. Socrates awareness of his own ignorance frees him from what Russell would refer to as "Self". I mention this because it serves as a common theme even as both philosophers differ in their messages.

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806 Words | 4 Pages

In this play the Socrates here doesn't sound like the Socrates from the Apology or the real life Socrates. The real Socrates doesn't actually teach per say, he teaches in a way that makes you yourself use your brain. He makes you question everything and understand things based on your own perception. The writer of this play clearly felt as if Socrates was a major problem in his society for allowing people to actually try to think outside of the box and ask questions. He most likely enjoyed the fact that everyone were robots and all thought alike and believed in the same thing because it brought no need to bring out discussion.

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1641 Words | 7 Pages

Since the day of the judgment between Athens and Socrates in 399 year B.C. many historians, philosophers, and students wonder to know whether Socrates was Guilty. Philosopher was accused in corrupting the youth, not believing in the recognized gods and introducing new divinities and in the rejection of civic life in democratic society. It is very difficult to answer on this question, may be even impossible. In my opinion, there are three types of people: 1.

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1314 Words | 6 Pages

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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2102 Words | 9 Pages

Another example of when Socrates uses this form of questioning is also seen when Socrates is in the Agora, or public place, acting as a “public philosopher” and questioning several bystanders (Morrison 335). Here Socrates questions poets, and craftsmen, as well as other citizens of Athens. Socrates tests them to see if they are truly experts in their professions and in turn realizes that these people are just as lost as he is about said topics. That was not always the case however, as Socrates sometimes only pretended to be ignorant. Eventually Socrates concludes that people are unaware of themselves and claim to have knowledge when they really don’t.

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947 Words | 4 Pages

In this second quote, Socrates is saying that he possesses a certain wisdom given to him by the god to spread his philosophy and belief in the city of Athens. Here is a third piece of evidence to support my point from “ The Apology”. “Afterwards I went to talk to one person after another, sensing how odious I had become to them. I was sad and fearful; but I felt it was necessary to make the god’s work my highest priority.” (Lines 56-58)

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1115 Words | 5 Pages

In Plato’s Apology, Socrates is put into trial because he is accused of corrupting the youth with his teachings that deviate from the established beliefs of the Greek society. Although he justifies that he is only doing what he believes is his duty, he reasons that even if he is given a death penalty, death is nothing to be feared. He raises multiple strong and effective arguments that explain to his audience that it is illogical to fear death. All of these arguments revolves around the central idea that death is not evil and that “no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death” (Apology, 41c). The first argument that Socrates presents during his trial is the idea that death is not the most important thing to worry about in

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606 Words | 3 Pages

In the reading of “Plato Apology”, Socrates’ vindicates what he values and beliefs to a jury to prove his innocence. Indeed, Miletus a poet, Anytus a craftsmen and Lycon a politician brought an oral charges against Socrates’ attested him of impiety and corrupting youth, required him to appear before the King Archon the legal

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912 Words | 4 Pages

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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452 Words | 2 Pages

Socrates believed that knowledge was what created wisdom and because of that he honored knowledge. I do agree with Socrates belief in this matter. The more knowledge and education you get, the wiser you will become. I am not very wise but I love to learn new things every

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1376 Words | 6 Pages

I think that it is a little ironic that Socrates, the man who was all about intellect, had an intellectual error. Socrates was a man who focused on the truth, and unfortunately he failed to realize that the truth might not be what everyone else was focused on. In relation to what I stated earlier here is some in text evidence; Socrates said “to disregard the manner of my speech- it doesn't matter how it compares- and to consider and concentrate your attention upon this one question, whether my claims are

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969 Words | 4 Pages

Philosophical thinking uses three acts of the mind: understanding, judgement, and reason. In order to have a sound argument all of the concepts must be applied. Socrates didn’t want to please the people by saying or doing what they wanted him to say or do. Socrates thought it was not important to seek wealth or fame; he was concerned with truth and virtue. He wanted to create an impact on humanity by relying on the truth and shining a light in people’s lives, even if they put him on trial.

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