The Judgment of Socrates

The context for the Apology is the anticipation of Socrates's punishment owing to accusations that he "corrupts the youth . . . does not believe in the gods of the State, and has other new divinities of his own" (Apology 12). Socrates understands that the accusation is a ruse on the part of persons who wish to silence him on account of his social strategy, which is to ask questions of the supposedly wise in order to achieve "such wisdom as is attainable by man" (Apology 8). He draws answers out of others without giving them the answers, yet by exposing the logical problems with their answers he points toward truth, clarity, and understanding. He explains that he sought out politicians, poets, and artisans, who thought that because they were good at their particular profession "they also knew all sorts of high matters, and this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom" (Apology 10).

Socrates's accusers--representing poets, politicians, artisans, and rhetoricians--deliberately reformulate and mischaracterize his conclusion that after consulting with the supposedly wise he was better

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eir elders will drive me out" (Apology 26). One does not have to make a case for the merits of the case against Socrates to see that he seems determined to deliberately provoke those who have the power to condemn him. Thus far from agreeing that he is evil, he asserts as a positive value and rare virtue exactly that which provokes the comfortable self-image and stability of Athenian society. In other words, he is not a threat but rather "a sort of gadfly, given to the State by the God," and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. And as you will not easily find another like me, I would advise you to spare me. . . . And that I am given to you by God is proved by this: that if I had been like other men, I should not have neglected all my own concerns, or patiently seen the neglect of them during all these years, and have been doing yours, coming to you individually, like a father or elder brother, exhorting you to regard virtue. . . . And I have a witness of the truth of what I say; my poverty is a sufficient witness (Apology 19-20). Socrates's insistence on being acquitted by reason of his engagement in conversation aimed at virtue yet his equal insistence on
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Approximate Word count = 1838
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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