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Book Report on Apology Essay

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Book Report on Apology

In the “Apology”, Socrates tackles his accusers against certain accusations made against him in the Court of Law of Athens, Greece. The nature of the accusation that has caused him to stand trial is such that “Socrates is an evil-doer, and a curious person, who searches into things under the earth and in heaven, and he makes the worse appear the better cause; and he teaches the aforesaid doctrines to others” (Plato. The Republic and other plays. pg-449. Doubleday publishing; New York- 1989). Socrates begins with first identifying the type of accusers he has, which consist of those who are in direct contention with him, the primary accusers, since they are the ones who contrived the accusations. Then there …show more content…

pg-454). He then explains that if he was corrupting others, he too would have been corrupted long ago and there would be no good left. Also he rebuttals the charge of not believing in Gods while believing in higher divinities. The charge, he shows how ludicrous was indeed in nature since how can anyone believe in flute playing and not the flute player (Plato, pg-457). How can one believe in spiritual and divine agencies, and not in spirits or demigods? But ultimately Socrates’ defense is his self-lessness. He attributes his deeds to his duty towards God. He makes it clear that the obligation to truth is far more closer to God than any other social one that is marked by malice. His poverty, his unchanging and impartial ways that he followed all his life to search for the truth and when having found it, give it to others without taking into consideration what the government in power would say or do about it in itself is an evidence and a virtue that rises above all others to prove him innocent. His defense is simple and artless because it is the truth, within which some more properties emerge. One of these can be identified as the simplicity of truth and the other is its universality. Truly, although several impugn Socrates of wrong-doing and misguiding the youth, he was not the first or the last one tried on such a charge. This points to the nature of truth to be unchanging. Despite all the advances a society may claim to having

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