Plato and Socrates Essay example

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In the Apology, Socrates is on trail trying to defend his purpose and way of life to the jury of the city of Athen’s. Socrates is charged based on his actions in the city which are corrupting the young, and him not believing any of the same gods as the city of Athens does. Socrates gives a defense speech explaining that this is what his life is like and this is who he is. He asks the jury to judge him fairly because he has never been on trial before. The two groups accusing Socrates are his former accusers for slander and the people who are accusing him now. Socrates explains that it is going to be a difficult task for him to defend his purpose in life because his former accusers had given him a bad reputation around the city from his past.
Socrates explains that his former accusers are more dangerous than the present charges against him because the people that have slandered him for being a wise-man and a thinker. He discusses that he now has bad reputation over him because of all of the slander from his first accusers about him. The people accusing him believe if he is studying certain scientific things then he does not believe in God which concludes he is atheist. Socrates tells them this can not be true since he is known as a public figure when he goes in the city and tells the jury that he is not just a scientist but that he also spreads his teachings and knowledge to the people in the city.
Socrates goes into detail saying that he is nothing like a sophist that charges money for his teachings because he does not believe in charging money to someone for spreading wisdom. In
Socrates passage, “I am going to teach you where the slander against me has come from”
Socrates tells the jury that he is going to prove his wisdom with a story about his friend
Chaerephon who talks to the Delphi Oracle as evidence. The Oracle speaks on behalf of the gods and says that no one is wiser than Socrates. Socrates thinks that this may perhaps be a riddle when he heard this and wants to understand the meaning behind this. Socrates tries to get a better

understanding about virtue and talks to three groups that he recognizes for having a reputation for being wise: the politicians, the poets, and the craftsman. All three groups are enraged and hate him because he questions them and finds out that they all only presumed to know things that they do not actually know. Socrates is concerned with the question on the virtue of a humanbeing vs the virtue of a citizen. He discovers that the virtue of a citizen who does their duty and obeys the law does not mean they are always good human beings. The older men are of Athens are furious because they believe Socrates has corrupted the young since they are imitating his actions. Socrates denies the argument explaining that he never directly taught any of the young since they are only imitating him, and the fathers are angry because they are not able to answer the questions the young people are asking them. Socrates implies that the corruption charge is the most dangerous because the older people in the city of Athens think he has made the young people stray away from what the city and the laws teach about citizenship.
Socrates then turns his attention to Meletus who led the prosecution against him. Socrates confronts Meletus saying in his passage “who makes them better?” if he is the only one corrupting them. Meletus answers in his passage “The laws.” “The judges.” in which he is implying that everyone but Socrates makes the young people better. Socrates argues with
Meletus explaining that isn’t the person with experience should be the one teaching the young. In the passage Socrates asks Meletus “Is there anyone who wishes to be harmed?”. Meletus explains that Socrates is voluntarily corrupting the young people in Athens. Socrates says in his passage “Either I do not corrupt, or if I do corrupt, I do it involuntarily.” Socrates concludes saying that Meletus statement is false because he is not trying to
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