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Plato's The Apology

Decent Essays

Plato’s The Apology is the speech that Socrates makes at the trial in which he is charged with not recognizing the gods recognized by the state, creating new deities, and corrupting the youth of Athens. Even though the title of Socrates’ speech is The Apology, it is not an apology for his actions, but rather he attempts to defend himself and his conduct. The apology has made me reflect on whether a person should focus on improving himself or herself, or should they focus on improving other people.
During his speech, Socrates speaks in a very plain and conversational manner. He points out that he has no experience with the law courts and haven’t been in a law court all of his life. Socrates then says that he will not speak in the way the sophists do, with rhetoric, but instead will speak with honesty and directness. At the first part of the speech, he explains that his style comes from a prophecy by the oracle at Delphi which claimed that he was the wisest man in Athens. He then explains that because of the oracle’s prophecy, he tried to find someone who is wiser than him. He went to all the people who had great reputations for wisdom and people who claimed to have a lot of knowledge and found out that they didn’t really know the things they claimed to know. Socrates then concluded that he must be wiser than other men because he is aware that doesn’t know everything. Socrates explains that in order to spread his wisdom, he considered it his duty to question the people who

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