Thucydides’ work, however, was not simply a book written about Athens as the protagonist which was defeated by its foolish over-ambition, he wrote about the Athenians and Spartans with similar objectivity, acknowledging both their weaknesses and virtues. Thucydides regularly demonstrated a “determination to establish what happened and why”. He believed one of the primary reasons for the decline of Athens was because of the political problems with democracy and selfish imperialism. Whilst he used facts to support this belief, he expressed it most directly when quoting speeches. I will examine the purpose of Thucydides’ work by assessing his omissions, the events he chooses to focus on more closely, and his own analysis of his work.
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.
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.
The Apology Socrates was a powerful philosopher whose message was shocking to most Athenians, and threatening to the Athenian government. He took credibility from Athenian elitists by doubting the validity of their knowledge, which is in large part why he was eventually put to death. In his apology to the citizens of Athens, Socrates defends his calling from God by stressing the importance of knowledge and the means to attaining wisdom. Socrates’ description of knowledge and its relationship to wisdom can be understood through a metaphor in which light represents knowledge and wisdom signifies the increasing power the light bears as knowledge continues to grow. The concept of knowledge is effectively represented as a light that is inherent in each human.
Here, legal cases would be proposed, social and political issues would be discussed, and the public would vote on decisions (such as policies and laws) that would inevitably affect the state. However, Plato dismissed this form of rule, regarding it as replete with corruption, thus an inferior form of rule, void of justice and efficiency. He cites reasons for such a view. He references the trial and death of Socrates, who was sentenced to death, charged with the crime of corrupting the youth of Athens through encouraging them to think about previously unexplored ideas. Plato regarded this conviction as unjust, and as this conviction was made under a democratic government, democracy was also unjust.
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.
Within this paper, we shall contrast the differenced between the earth and sky gods, how these differences established correct and incorrect conduct for the Greeks, and how the violations of Agamemnon, and Clytemnestra, established a standard of public justice for their society for violating social norms. When contrasting between the earth goddesses, and the rational sky gods, cultural inferences can be made, about wisdom, religion, as well as the pecking order of men and
Edward Snowden: A Vehicle for Change or a Traitor? Antigone is a tragic as well as a pungent play written by Scphocles, which tells a story about the Athenian Greek era and their stringent state laws which infringes on individual rights and freedoms. And this theme is of course played out between Creon, who refuses to adhere to Antigone’s (the State) decree, by disobeying the state to dictate to her as to what she is allowed to do with her brother’s body (Antigone). In a similar situation in our modern time, is the Snowden controversy. Edward Snowden was an ex National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who leaked classified government information to journalists about the agency’s domestic spying activities which he believed to be an abuse of NSA’s authority and illegal(McCutcheon).
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
He continued to refute this assertion by making a slightly sarcastic, presumptuous joke at the public’s expense, “Listen then...some of you will think I am jesting, but be sure that all I say is true.” This quote can be perceived as a stab at the ‘inferior argument’ strategy, for which sophists are famous. In Aristophane’s Clouds, Socrates is portrayed as being able to teach such a method, in which the individual that masters it can make even the