Plato's Apology: What Happened During The Trial Of Socrates

Socrates was a man who spent most of his time talking to people. He would ask them hypothetical questions, and make them think for themselves about the true answer they believed in, by serving as a guide for the conversation. Many people, including the accusers, believed that while Socrates did this, he was serving as a Sophist. A Sophist is a person who talks to people, and teaches them how to argue a point, whether the point is right or wrong. A Sophist would collect money for this lesson, and go on with their teachings (Xenophon 42). This accusation is inaccurate because Socrates did not collect any money for his conversations with people. Instead, Socrates was a very poor man, who happened to have rich friends. Talking to these people was a way for Socrates to try to spread his way of life to the Athenian's. He enjoyed conversing with people about ethical issues, and moral beliefs. In his argument, Socrates refutes Meletus' charge that he corrupts the young. One crucial point deals with the idea of Socrates as a paid teacher. This would imply that Socrates was actively seeking students and teaching "corrupting" ideas. This plays a part in the argument, by Meletus, that Socrates has deliberately corrupted the youth. Socrates says that, "the young men who follow me around of their own free will, those who have most leisure, the sons

If it were the exact definition, only Euthyphro would be pious. He said that Euthyphro did not understand the difference between a definition and an example. Next, Euthyphro says that piety is found in things that are dear to the gods (7a). Socrates again rejected Euthyphro’s definition of piety. The Greek gods were anthropomorphic; therefore, another may despise what would be dear to one god. This definition offered was not distinct. Finally, Euthyphro said that what is pious is what loved by the gods (9e). However, Euthyphro can’t answer whether something is pious because it is loved or it is loved because it is pious. He can’t conceive the difference between cause and effect. It is in the Euthyphro that Socrates begins his defense of his actions and principles to the reader. A priest can’t give him a concise answer as to what is religious; therefore, how can anyone else, especially one less religiously guided than a priest, accuse him of blasphemous actions?

Socrates helps Euthyphro to give meaning to the word ‘piety ', and this serves to bring a new meaning to the respect to the divine beings and help in the explanation of the whole context of the divinity in the society. In this manner, there is the need to create a clear definition and help Euthyphro in getting ideas that he can use to teach Socrates to answer the resulting question about the piety. This is to enable Socrates to have a string defense against the charge of impiety and help in tackling the challenges that he faces in the society. The story and the relationship between Socrates and Euthyphro arise when Socrates is called to court to answer to the charges of impiety by Meletus, (Plato et al, 1927). In the courts, Socrates meets Euthyphro, who comes to the courts to prosecute his father who is a murderer.

Socrates implies that the true nature of this charge was, in fact, vengeance carried out on the part of the power-holders of the Athenian society; the politicians, the poets, the manual artisans.  Socrates, unwillingly made fools out of these people by exposing their speeches as mere rhetoric than actual wisdom and knowledge.  These men who were seen as the wisest and the most enlightened, but in fact, by believing that they are most knowledgeble is what keeps them from real wisdom.  Socrates is also being charged with attacking the Athenian society by corrupting its citizens, mainly the youth.  He defends himself by claiming that either Meletus beleives that Socrates does not corrupt the youth or he does corrupt them but involuntarily.  Socrates bring to light that "if I corrupt them voluntarily, the law does not call upon you to procecute me for an error which is involuntary, but to take me aside privately and reprove and educate me" (33).  Socrates goes on further to say

A9: Socrates believes that the first definition piety given by Euthyphro is very vague; Euthyphro has only given an example of what piety is (his current action in prosecuting his father) not a definition. Socrates wants Euthyphro to be more specific in what he defines as piety.

Through the dialogue present in Plato’s Euthyphro, the reader is presented with different definitions of piety. In the beginning, we learn that Socrates is being charged with atheism. Before his public indictment, he meets Euthyphro and seeks knowledge from him to set himself free of the charges brought against him by his prosecutor. Through their dialogue, Euthyphro tries to explain piety and holiness to him, however all the definitions given turned out to be unsatisfactory for Socrates. Amongst the definitions given by Euthyphro, one states that all that is beloved by the gods is pious and all that is not beloved by the gods is impious (7a). However, from this definition, a dilemma arises which is mentioned by Socrates.

In the Apology Socrates is accused of being a sophist. A sophist is someone who will argue for any cause using rhetoric for money, a sophist makes a weak argument strong. Socrates disputes this accusation, he claims that if he is guilty he simply is ignorant of it. In the Republic, Socrates has a dialogue with various people with one main objective, to determine what is justice. Following the dialogue, the reader can start to see that Socrates is not a sophist. His arguments seemed to be weak but is strengthened by Socrates use of rhetoric. However, his arguments are logical, he isn’t arguing just for fun, and he is not being paid. Socrates is not a sophist. He is a great speaker and uses rhetoric to his advantage, that does not make him a

Socrates was accused of being a sophist because he was "engaging in inquiries into things beneath the earth and in the heavens, of making the weaker argument appear the stronger," and "teaching others these same things." (Apology, Plato, Philosophic Classics page 21) Socrates is also accused of denying the existence of the gods, and corrupting the youth. Socrates goes about trying to prove his innocence. The jury that Socrates was tried by was made up of 501 Athenian citizens of all classes of society. While he fails to convince the Athenian jury of his innocence, he does a wonderful job in this effort. I personally believe that Socrates is innocent, and that the Athenian jury made the wrong decision.

Socrates used Socratic irony on the jury, to make clear that his accusers were skilled in rhetoric but not the truth. Many of Socrates’s accusers were taught in the art of rhetoric by sophist, men well trained in the art of making the weaker argument stronger. Plato defined Socrates’s character by comparing himself, a philosopher, a lover of wisdom, to men taught by sophist who claimed to be wise but rejected wisdom in favor of rhetorical persuasion. The clear distinction between sophist and philosophers is an important one to make, because it shows that although Socrates was accused of selling his wisdom to the highest bidder, that was not the case. Socrates spent his entire life realizing his own philosophy, swayed only by the truth and never by the coin.

Socrates was a moral philosopher who was accused of impiety and was about to be tried for a crime, the nature of which no one seemed to understand. The trial and death of Socrates has four dialogs known as the Euthyphro, the Apology, the Crito, and the Phaedo which describes the process of Socrates’ controversial and insightful trial that raises the questions about human morality. Within the story we learned that the relationship between morality and religion might not be as clear-cut as some might think, Socrates forces the witnesses of his trial as well as ourselves to come to conclusions which result in a paradox that conflicts with the individual beliefs of his audience. In the event in which, Socrates poses a question to himself and Euthyphro, an attempt to answer the question "What is piety?" It has a specific tie to the events in “The Trial and Death of Socrates”, for Socrates had been accused of impiety and was about to be tried for the crime of heresy. The Euthyphro dialogue was written twenty-four centuries ago, and its conclusion is devastating for the whole idea that holiness and morality are very well connected. The idea that, “if God does not make something good by commanding it, but rather instead identifies that which is good, what measurement of morality does he use to make this judgment?” If something is right because god commands it, then it follows that something would be just as right if God instructed differently. If god declares that it is right to

The name of the dialogue is derived from the Greek word “apologia” which translates into “defense.” Socrates mission has led to animosity from his fellow Athenians and is in trial for what he claims he is just following orders from God. To examine why Socrates is determined to continue this mission regardless of any consequences, we must first understand how Socrates began his philosophical mission. Socrates had a friend, Chairephone; he went to Delphi and asked the oracle if anyone was wiser than Socrates. In The Apology Socrates is recorded saying “he asked if any man was wiser than I, and the Pythian replied that no one was wiser” (The Apology, 21a). Trying to understand this “riddle”, Socrates was at loss and goes to question someone who was considered wise in Athens. After finding out that this man was no wiser than he was he thought to himself, “he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent.” (21d). Socrates did not just stop with this one man. He went on to question politicians, poets, generals among others and received a similar experience with each one. What Socrates derived from these dialogues was that he was aware of his own ignorance rather than being completely wrong. This awareness of one’s own ignorance is known as “Socratic Ignorance” and is the premise of Socrates’

The Euthyphro Dilemma is a dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro discussing the nature of piety. Socrates is on trial for a crime and Euthyphro is prosecuting his dad for murder and some people think that his actions are wrong, but he thinks otherwise. Socrates subsequently ask Euthyphro what is the nature of piety. Euthyphro says pious is what he’s doing, to accuse a criminal of any crime, whether the person who is wrong is a relative, or anyone else and not to prosecute is impious. However, Socrates is not looking for what actions are pious but what makes pious action pious.

The Apology Written By Plato, is a detailed account of the trial of Socrates, who was a great philosopher in Athens. Socrates was brought to trial based on charges of “corrupting the youth” and “not believing in the gods” (23d). The people of Athens believed Socrates was corrupting the youth because they simply did not understand his method of inquiry, which consisted of Socrates teaching them to question what they thought to be true. Socrates’ method of inquiry drove his listeners to question their beliefs and often brought them to a state of puzzlement, or a state Plato calls ‘aporia.’ There are many examples of the Socratic method present in The Meno, which is also written by Plato. The entirety of The Apology consists of Socrates

The first definition of piety that Euthyphro offers to Socrates is that “the pious is to do what I am doing now to prosecute the wrong doer…not to prosecute is impious” (6, e). Euthyphro is present as a witness against his own father who is accused of murder. Socrates appreciates that he believes so strongly in justice that he would hold his own family member accountable, but is displeased with this meaning, simply because it is only an explanation and not a true meaning. Socrates wants to know what pious means in and of itself, not an example or an act of being pious.

In the Apology, Socrates is being put on trial for corrupting the young and not believing in the gods. Socrates indicates that he is not a professional teacher by stating “The fact is that there is nothing in any of these charges; and if you heard anyone say that I try to educate people and charge a fee, there is no truth in that either – though I think that it is a fine thing if a man has the ability to teach, as in the case of Gogrias of Leontini, Prodicus of Ceos, and Hippias of Elis.” (Plato 42) Socrates utilizes a sense of logic that appeals to the people of the jury to defend himself from the false accusations of people claiming he is a teacher because only a teacher can teach likewise only a sailor can sail. Thus he cannot teach nor corrupt the young by any means because he is unable to do so. Likewise being able to reason represents characteristics of manliness, since men are consider to be intelligent and wise, using logic provides a recognition of these aspects.