Socrates

1
Plato, The Apology

• Socrates trial

2
Socrates and Plato

• 469-399 BCE

• 427-327 BCE

3
Socrates trial

• 501 dikasts

4
The Apology Background

• Athenian Democracy
• Peloponnesian Wars (431-404 BCE)
• Rule of Thirty Tyrants (8 months in 404-403 BCE)
  and Socrates friendship with Critias, one of the
  leaders of the Thirty
• Friendship with Alcibiades (Defeat at Syracuse,
  Sicily)
• The Sophists Aristophanes The Clouds
• Socrates anti democratic views
• Delphic oracle and the creation of powerful
  enemies within Athens
• Religious oddity His own personal daemon

5
The Apology Philosophers vs. Sophists

• Sophists
• Elegant rhetoric
• Persuasive
• Clever
• Disdain for Truth
• Philosophy
• Aimed at Truth
• Question and Answer
• Plain
• Earnest

6
Informal Charges

• Theres a man called Socrates, a wise man, a
  thinker about things in the heavens, an
  investigator of all things below the earth, and
  someone who makes the weaker argument the
  stronger. (18 b-c).
• Longevity
• No defense
• No named accusers except perhaps for
  Aristophanes

7
Defense of Informal Charges

• Personal Daemon (conscience or intuition who must
  be obeyed above all else)
• Different interest than the Pre-Socratics
• No interest in the make-up of the external world
  the inward turn
• Not a sophist is not paid for his teaching
• Chaerephon and the Delphic Oracle
• The conceit of wisdom (Hubris)
• Recognizing the limits of ones knowledge

8
Formal Charges

• Meletus (poets), Anytus (artisans and
  politicians), and Lycon (orators). Anytus was a
  democratic leader who helped restore democracy to
  Athens after the Thirty were expelled. Probably
  the real leader of the three.
• Socrates is guilty of corrupting the young, and
  of not acknowledging the gods the city
  acknowledges, but new daimonic activities
  instead (24 b).

9
Corruption of the young discussion with Meletus

• Who improves the young and who harms them?
• All Athenians improve them except Socrates who
  harms them
• Analogy to horse training The few improve, the
  many harm
• We would choose to live among good people better
  than bad (because good people benefit others
  while bad people harm them).
• So, if I am harming them, I must be doing so
  unintentionally.
• But if so, then the remedy is private
  instruction and admonishment not a public trial
  (26a).

10
Impiety charge

• Atheist You dont acknowledge any gods at all
  (26c).
• Not Anaxagoras
• Can you believe in godly activities without
  believing also in gods (analogy can you believe
  in human activities without believing in humans)
• He clearly believes in godly activities daimons

11
Fear and doing the right thing

• Fighting in Peloponnesian War
• Giving up Philosophy?
• Athens pursuing honour and wisdom rather than
  wealth
• Admonishes youth to pursue virtue over wealth
• Putting Socrates to death (and banning him or
  getting him to stop philosophizing) more harm to
  Athens than to Socrates.
• Socrates as gadfly.
• Private vs public life (32)
• Events where Socrates stood up despite possible
  retribution (32)

12
Guilty verdict

• Not surprised (mere 30 votes difference)
• Politics if Anytus hadnt come forward with
  Lycon to accuse me, Meletus would have been fined
  a thousand drachmas, since he wouldnt have
  received a fifth of the votes (36a).
• I should get what I deserve.
• I have devoted myself to the city and its people
  so I deserve something good (36d). Free meals
  in the Prytaneum, i.e., the house of the king or
  prytanis.
• Death may be a good or a bad thing.
• Imprisonment? Fine? Exile? Keeping quiet and
  minding your own business?
• 30 minas fine to be put up by his friends (a
  significant amount of money ten years salary
  for someone engaged in public works.

13
Death penalty and Final Words

• Words to those who voted for his death
• Denigrated Athens reputation for a little time
  (before Socrates , as an old man, would have died
  anyway)
• No regrets (and no bad behaviour on his part)
• There are worse things than death, like loosing
  your honour.
• Curse Vengeance on them via younger men like
  Socrates.

14
Death penalty and Final Words

• Words to those who voted for him
• Conscience is clear daimonic voice
• Death is either a sleeping state or a good thing
  where Socrates can talk with great men who have
  died
• Nothing bad can happen to a good man, whether in
  life or death (41d).
• Take care of my sons the way I have taken care of
  you by questioning them and getting them to
  pursue whats important.