Kiah Quinn Nathan Poage Philosophy 1301 July 17, 2015 What are the charges against Socrates as recorded in the Apology? Is he guilty of them? Why or why not? In Plato’s Apology, charges are being held against Socrates during his trial. The two main charges against Socrates are corrupting the young and also not having the proper religious beliefs.
And to find out some answers, we need to go through Plato’s dialogues, “Crito” and “Phaedo”. This conversation between Socrates and his dearest closer friends and fellows, may bring us some of the answers…if we have the good sense of reading it more than once. After been convicted in Athens for corrupting the youth and not believing in Gods, Socrates was given the chance to scape to another city to save his life.
These charges are for “corrupting the minds of the young, and of believing in supernatural things of his own invention instead of gods recognised by the state.”1, However Socrates himself acknowledges a further set of charges against him, these are the “earliest charges”2 he refers to in the Apology, namely gossip in the Agora that has “tried to fill your minds with untrue accusations”3 against Socrates. These charges he holds as more dangerous because they stem from idle gossip and prejudice and are therefore unanswerable. Despite this, Socrates does his utmost to address all charges brought against him. In order to defend himself against these charges, Socrates calls on Meletus, his principal accuser, and interrogates him in the familiar form of the elenchus, or cross-examination. The first time the Socratic Method appears in the Apology is when Socrates tells the jury of his ‘divine mission’ when he systematically questions various levels of society such as Politicians, Poets and Craftsmen.
Euthyphro – Plato In Euthyphro, there was dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro about the meaning of piety. Socrates has a particular interest in the subject of piety due to his recent charge of impiety. Socrates is about to be tried before Athenian court to determine whether he is guilty or innocent of the charges against him. The charges are for corrupting the youth, inventing new charges, and not believing in the old ones. He does not feel that the people understand the real meaning of piety and impiety.
Odysseus also a firm believer in hospitality; Which explains why he was in such distress after learning of the suitors attempt to take everything he’s ever worked for. Guile is a clever form of deceit. Odysseus was full of it; the perfect example was when he introduced himself to Polyphemus. “My name is Nobody; Mother, father, friends/everyone calls me Nobody.” (IX) Odysseus knew that they would they would try to kill Polyphemus, so He gave him this alias because he was aware that Polyphemus would call for help to the other Cyclopes, and when he did he would sound like an idiot. He also used his guile on Calypso.
Reasonable Eccentric Behavior of Dorian Gray . In the book, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian Gray is a handsome and proper man, but on the inside he is full of madness, guilt and misery. Initially he’s a melodramatic and petulant young man , but after realizing his true morals –his life skews toward the futile side. Instead of fixing his life, he lives for the pursuit of pleasure which makes him indifferent. Although his actions are very insane, they can be seen as rational to reader considering hedonism.
One of the charges in the affidavit written by Meletus against Socrates is that he is an evil doer "corrupting the youth" (Grube). Another charge brought against Socrates is that he is making up new Gods and disregarding the old Gods the Athenians believe in (Grube). Socrates starts his defense by addressing the jury and telling them that his accusers had a prepared speech, while Socrates' speech will be completely improvised (Perel). Socrates continued to further disassociate himself from the opponents by telling the jury to forgive him for his conversational tone in his speech, for that is how he best speaks (Perel). Socrates asked the jury to focus on the substance of his defense, not how his defense is delivered.
Despite Socrates' obfuscation of the charges put against him (particularly the alleged distinction between "old charges" and "new charges"), the only charges relevant to his guilt in the trial were the so-called "new charges" put forward by Meletus: 1. "corrupting the young" and 2. "not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other new spiritual beings" (Apology 24b-24c). In Euthyphro, while discussing the matter immediately prior to the trial, Socrates connects the two charges, and says the indictment against him claims he corrupts the youth by
The Charges against Socrates In Apology from Plato, Socrates is confronted with some charges from two groups of accusers. The first group of accusers says that Socrates is “guilty of wrongdoing in that he busies himself studying things in the sky and below the earth.” (Plato 19b) Also, they add up that “he makes the worse into the stronger argument, and he teaches these same things to others.” (Plato 19b) The second group of accusers alleges Socrates’ guilt as “guilty of corrupting the young and of not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other new spiritual things.” (Plato 24b-c) These are the charges against Socrates from Apology. When the first group of accusers charges against Socrates, they identify Socrates as a natural philosopher by “a person who studying things in the sky and below the earth.” (Plato 19b) In Socrates’ time, everything was started and ended by gods because Athenian people told stories of gods and made themselves in terms of gods. In Athenian society, the gods were the most powerful being because they created, fashioned, and ruled the world. However, some Greek philosophers were not happy with it, and they started paying tribute to natural processes when they recognized that the natural processes or elemental processes had been upon the earth.
Unfortunately, many Athenians found Socrates to be a threat to them due to some events that occurred during the time. Because of his beliefs, he was brought to trial for “corrupting the young” and “ not worshipping the gods of the state” and was later executed in 399 B.C at the age of 70. One of Socrates teachings was about evil. He believed that nobody chooses to do wrong voluntarily. He’d also said that doing wrong always harmed the offender and no one tries to bring harm upon themselves.