The Trial And Death Of Socrates : The Trial And Death Of Socrates

Four accusations about Socrates are that he commits injustice and is a busybody; he investigates things in the heavens and beneath the earth; he does not acknowledge the gods; he makes the weaker argument the stronger; he teaches this to others; he corrupts the young (Plato, Apology, 18c-19b, pg 47). While he is guilty of the first, second, fifth and sixth accusations, he is innocent of the third and the fourth.

FUTTER, DYLAN. “Socrates Human Wisdom.” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 52.1 (2013): 61-79. Humanities International Complete. Print.

Socrates then discusses what it would take for an individual and community to achieve self-discipline or self-mastery. To achieve self-discipline one needs to have complete control between all three parts of the soul. When someone has achieved the sense of self-discipline the rational part of the soul has taken control of both the spirited and appetite. “There are better and worse elements in persons mind, and when the part which is naturally better is in control of the worse part, then we use the phrase self-mastery.” (Plato, 431a) When you’re spirited and desire parts of the soul do the job of the rational, you may make decisions that are not morally right. As in a community you would want the guardians to make the decisions rather than the farmers and fisherman because they lack the knowledge to make the decisions that make the community prosper. To Plato the soul is immortal and lives on after death and the body decays.

Liberation here in the visible realm comes from recognizing the hindering function of the body in the soul's search for knowledge. Socrates comments that a soul associated too closely with the

The portrayal of Socrates, through the book “the trial and death of Socrates” is one that has created a fairly controversial character in Western history. In many ways, Socrates changed the idea of common philosophy in ancient Greece; he transformed their view on philosophy from a study of why the way things are, into a consideration man. Specifically, he analyzed the virtue and health of the human soul. Along side commending Socrates for his strong beliefs, and having the courage to stand by those convictions, Socrates can be commended for many other desirable characteristics. Some of those can include being the first martyr to die for his philosophical beliefs and having the courage to challenge indoctrinated cultural norms is part of

The charges against Socrates were brought upon him by a man names Meletus. Meletus was a young man that Socrates did not know very well. These charges brought on by Meletus caused the indictment of Socrates. One of the charges in the affidavit written by Meletus against Socrates is that he is "corrupting the youth." Another charge that is brought upon Socrates is that of he is making up new Gods and disregarding the old Gods the Athenians believe in. These were the charges brought on Socrates.

In Plato’s: The Apology Socrates was charged and put on trial for impiety, as well as accused of committing many other crimes. I will first explain the most important issues of why Socrates was sent to death. Then I will argue the position that Socrates is innocent, and should not be have been found guilty.

Even though Socrates was on his deathbed, he was still teaching and arguing with his students. He wanted his students and friends to understand that it was for the good of society that he dies. I believe Socrates was thinking about the future and how his death would be a lesson for someone else. Socrates was also telling his students that he was not going to disobey the law. Socrates’ students and friends could have taken him to another city. That would have made Socrates a liar about what he was teaching all along. Even though the students and friends were crying and grieving over Socrates’ death, Socrates was not comforting them or fleeing to another city. Socrates was just teaching them his strong belief in justice and loyalty to the government. This was very devastating to his friends.

"...I spend all of my time going about trying to persuade you, young and old, to make your first and chief concern not for your bodies nor for your possessions, but for the highest welfare of your souls..." (Plato 62). He bases his arguments in an understanding that people can only be wise when their souls are free from their bodies, because the senses interfere with inquiry (Plato 131). Socrates admits, however, that throughout life the body and the soul are connected. They only separate at death, which he explains as "...the separate condition by itself of the soul when released from the body" (Plato 108). Based on this assumption, Socrates encourages people to give up bodily pleasures such as food, sex, and fancy clothes so that their souls can be as free as possible from their sensual bodies (Plato 108). Siddhartha uses the term Self to express the concept of the soul and the body. In order to free himself of the influences of the body on his soul, Siddhartha attempts "...to become empty, to become empty of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure, and sorrow-to let the Self die" (Hesse 14). However, he too finds it impossible to completely separate the soul and the body so that he can discover truth.

This can been seen when Socrates is talking with a few of his followers shortly before he is to be put to death for going against the Athenian government, and he says “I imagine that the soul reasons at its best when none of those things distracts it, whether hearing, sight, pain, or indeed any of the so-called pleasures – when it comes to be as much as possible by itself, saying goodbye to the body, and when it strives to understand what things really are” .

Socrates is believed to be one of the greatest philosophers of all time and he is credited as being the founder of western philosophy. This paper will explain some of his views to the most fundamental questions of today’s age. These questions will include topics about morality, the human condition, solution, and death. After Socrates’ views on these topics are explained, a critique will be done on his answers. I will start out by explaining exactly who Socrates is, and the time that he lived in. To start out, we will first examine Socrates’ view on morality.

According to the majority of the jury members of Athens, Socrates is a corruption to the youth, doer of evil and does not agree with the gods of his people. In the Apology, written by Plato these are the assumptions and accusations Socrates is held in court for. In court, he is faced with what most men fear, being wrongly accused leading to the death sentence. Socrates argues and strives to prove that he has no fear of being hated, being accused of serious crimes, being threatened with punishment, or being put to death.

Throughout the course of the Phaedo, Socrates argues that the soul is immortal. Because he believes that his soul will live on forever, Socrates claims that he is not afraid to die. Socrates was sentenced to death and due to the fact that he took the poison earlier than when was necessary, many believe that he committed suicide. Contrary to what may be presumed about Socrates’ death, I will argue that he is a martyr and did not commit suicide.

In this dialogue Socrates and the philosophers explore several arguments for this idea of an immortal soul. These arguments were to illustrate and verify that death is not the dying of body and soul collectively, but when the body dies the soul continues to live on. Socrates offers readers four main arguments: The Cyclical Argument, which is the idea that forms are fixed and external. The soul is the sole purpose of life in this argument, and therefore cannot die and it is also to be seen as virtually never-ending. Next is The Theory of Recollection, which insists that at birth everyone has knowledge that the soul experienced in another life. Meaning that the soul would have had to be existent before birth to bear this said knowledge.

Socrates was considered by many to be the wisest man in ancient Greece. While he was eventually condemned for his wisdom, his spoken words are still listened to and followed today. When, during his trial, Socrates stated that, “the unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato 45), people began to question his theory. They began to wonder what Socrates meant with his statement, why he would feel that a life would not be worth living. To them, life was above all else, and choosing to give up life would be out of the picture. They did not understand how one would choose not to live life just because he would be unable to examine it.