Socrates was put to death in part because of the charges brought against him, and in part because he refused the offer of friends to whisk him into exile. While he disagreed that he had committed the crimes with which he was charged, he nevertheless saw it as his duty to stay and defend himself and to accept whatever finding the state came to in his case. He felt that to flee the charges and the punishment would be to deny everything he had stood for in his life and his work.
He notes that he is charged with being an "evil-doer who
. . . makes the worse appear the better cause; and he teaches the aforesaid doctrines to others" (65). It is also charged that he "corrupts the youth; and . . . does not believe in the gods of the state, but has other new divinities of his own" (74). Socrates argues that the charges are false, that they were brought against him by people with ulterior motives. People who were not interested in the search for truth or the good of Athens or its citizens. Instead of being punished for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens, he believes he should be treated as a hero.
Socrates "apology" for philosophy is actually a powerful and defence of philosophy. It offers a self-portrait based not on impiety or pride or false gods or corruption or teaching lies for pay, but rather on a vigilant attention to and exposure of shoddy thinking and false wisdom and knowledge. We learn from Socrates that philosophy is not merely an exercise in logic or theory or abstract thought and idle argument, but rather a pursuit for truth, wisdom and the moral life for the individual and for society. Philosophy is not a hobby separate from life, a plaything for the rich, but rather life itself, a calling which gives life and death their meaning.
Socrates asks how he can be accused of putting himself and his knowledge above others, of putting his version of reality above that of the city's, when in fact the basis of his p...