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socrates4

socrates4 The Apology By: Anonymous In 399 B.C., Socrates, a seventy year old man, was brought to trial. He faced several accusations of different sorts. Initially, the court had pronounced Socrates guilty. However, because the law had no penalty ordained for his offense, it was required of Socrates to propose his own penalty, or to take the one suggested by Meletos, the death penalty. When the time had come for Socrates to state his defense, he addressed each of the accusations made against him, one by one, in attempt to absolve himself from wrong doing. The first accusation Socrates chose to contest declared that he was a student of natural philosophy. This meant that Socrates was believed to be one who sought to replace mythical explanations of events in the physical universe with rational and scientific explanations. A religious fundamentalist of the ancient world, on the other hand, adamantly opposed this idea. Meletos, the prosecutor of Socrates, was one of these religious fundamentalists who preferred the literal interpretations of Greek mythology over the logical ones. For example, Meletos would interpret a roll of thunder as an outburst of anger from the great god, Zeus, whereas Socrates would explain it meteorologically. Because of these conflicting interpretations, Socrates was charged with impiety against the gods of the city. Meletos declared that Socrates "sought things under the earth and up in the heavens, and made the weaker argument the stronger". To try to use scientific reason to explain any occurrence during this time period was disregarded, as it showed disrespect to the gods and to the Greek religion. Not only was Socrates condemned for this, but for, later, discussing his discoveries, thoughts, and beliefs with others, as well. Meletos declared that by doing this, Socrates was corrupting the religion of young boys who had never before been exposed to such ideas. When the court called upon the parents and kinsmen of those Socrates had supposedly corrupted to testify, though many were present at the trial, none came forward. Because of this, Socrates believed that he had not corrupted others, for if he had, they would surely seek revenge and be glad to testify against him, given the chance. Socrates truly felt that people enjoyed listening to his stories and spending time with him. He claimed that it was never his intention to teach anyone, only to discuss issues with those who cared to listen. Socrates was also accused of being an atheist, or one who does not believe in a god. This indictment was contradicted as the elderly man justified to the court his belief in spirits and other gods. He said it was not possible for a man to believe in divine things and spiritual things, as he did, and yet, not in gods and spirits and heroes. In other words, Socrates said that the belief in qualities implied the existence of those things to which the qualities corresponded. To further illustrate this idea, he used an example involving horsemanship, or the quality of riding horses well. If this quality existed, then horses must also exist since horsemanship would not be possible without them. Therefore, if Socrates believed in spirits, as Meletos's affidavit affirmed, he must have also believed in spiritual beings, or gods, as well. And because he did, Socrates could not have been an atheist after all. Other accusations against Socrates arose out of a sort of wisdom he practiced. This practice emerged out of a declaration made by the Delphian Oracle. He said that Socrates was the wisest of men. Once Socrates discovered this, he went about searching after a man who was wiser than himself to prove the priestess wrong. At first he went among the politicians, and then among the philosophers, and he found that he did, in fact have an advantage over them because he had no conceit of his knowledge, as the others did. Socrates found that poets were the worst possible interpreters of their own writings, and that the artisans had some real knowledge, however, also, had a conceit that they knew things which were beyond them. Once Socrates had analyzed his observations, he concluded that he was the wisest of men as the Delphian Oracle had suggested, but not because of what he knew. It was because he did not recognize his intelligence and wisdom. When it was time for the court to make its final decision, Socrates was given the death penalty. However, because this man had faced death many times before, he was not fearful of his fate. He believed that it would be good for him because the internal oracle had given no sign of opposition. And so, Socrates was put to death for the violations he had committed. Because Socrates was able to maintain his composure throughout the trial, and was able to truthfully discuss his tactics with the court even though it went against the common practices of the ancient world, I feel that he was a very honorable man. Even at the brink of death, Socrates did not modify his defense to what he thought the court would want to hear. He did not apologize for his way of thinking or for the way he went about doing things, but he, essentially, apologized for the fact that others were unable to understand his virtues. Bibliography:

Word Count: 887