by Marcus Willock

Created on: December 15, 2008

Plato's Apology of Socrates has nothing to do with apologizing. Within Greek society, the word apologize means to defend. One of the many definitions of the word defend is to represent and speak on behalf of an accused person in court. Plato's Apology of Socrates is a recap of the defense used by Socrates during his trial. This trail took place in 399 BC in front of about 500 Athenian male jurors. On this day, Socrates was charged for corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods of the city. The penalty for these crimes was death.

Socrates opens his defense by stating the real reason he believes he is being trialed. Previous to the trial, a man named Chairephon went to Delphi and asked the oracle if there was anyone wiser than Socrates. The response he received was that there is no one wiser. This news puzzled Socrates because he does not believe himself to be wise, but he also knows that the oracle does not lie. Not fully believing in oracle, Socrates went on a journey to refute the oracle by attempting to find a man wiser than himself. The first people he sought out were politicians known for their wisdom. When speaking with them, Socrates realizes that they believe that they know something when they actually know nothing. Through discourse, Socrates would prove that these politicians know nothing. Socrates then reasons that he is superior to these people because he acknowledges that he knows nothing whereas they falsely believe that they know something. After the politicians, he did the same to poets and craftsmen. Each time he proved that someone knew nothing, he gained the hatred of that person and everyone that person could influence. Socrates believes that it is this hatred that has brought him into court and not the crimes he is accused of committing.

In regards to the crimes Socrates is charged with, his accusers say that he corrupts the youth and believes in new divinities instead of the gods of the city. Socrates tackles these accusations in two segments. First, Socrates gets his main accuser, Meletus, to elaborate on how he corrupts the youth. When detailing Socrates's method of corruption, Meletus claims that Socrates does not believe in gods and instructs the youth to believe in new divinities instead of the gods of the city.

Socrates then agues against the notion of himself not believing in gods, but other divinities by examining his accuser's statement. Socrates gets everyone to agree, his accusers included, that divinities come from

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>