The Apology Of Socrates--Themes Death Sophists Ignorance Essays

The Apology Of Socrates--Themes Death Sophists Ignorance The Apology of Socrates In Athens between 429?347 B.C. a trail took place against Socrates where Plato made a speech in front of a council of 500 members. Plato wrote the Apology because Socrates was sentenced to death for dissuasion against state religion and corrupting young people. In the beginning, it seems like he is trying to split his accusers into two groups (old and new) to show that he has been accused many years of his life and the new accusers should be the only ones looked at because the old accusers did not appear in court. He was also allowed to cross-examine his accusers and make his own defense (Mack 502). Usually, at that time in Athens, the accusers say what they wanted the sentence to be and if it was death, it was natural for the accused to ask to be banished. However, he refused to disobey laws and already said that he did not want to live in another foreign country (Mack 499). Socrates focused mainly on themes of interest are ignorance, death and sophistry. Sophists were traveling teachers that sold their services to rich parents and promised to teach their kids important things that would help them advance in life. They are defined as ?men of wisdom? and that is exactly what Socrates tried to distinguish himself from (Allen 39-40). It seems that sophists can make humans great because there was an example given by Socrates that said ?if your two sons were colts and calves, we could get an overseer for them and hire them and he would be either a horse-trainer or a farmer (Allen 40).? Socrates denies the knowledge of having human excellence and claims to only have a certain type of wisdom and he never did charge for his services. So overall, Socrates identifies himself as an anti-sophist, although some of his techniques are suggestive of otherwise. The second most stressed theme would be the term ignorance. Socrates frequently confesses that he is ignorant (Allen 40-42). Socrates says that he only has ?human wisdom? and he claims that he knows that he is not wise: ?I know that I am not wise at all; what then does God mean by saying I am wisest In the oracle's saying, ?no one is wiser than Socrates (Allen 40-44).? Socrates knows that he is not wise and doubts what the oracle says and sets out to test it. He sets out to find someone that is wiser than he is. First, he went looking among the politicians and philosophers and then he found out that poets were the worst interpreters of their own writing and therefore was not wiser than he was (Allen 41-42). He finds someone who is wise and he thinks that the person is wise also but it turns out that the man was not wise at all and by unrevealing that he is not lead to a bad reputation and hatred of Socrates. Then he says that he is much wiser than the man is because he does not prete nd to possess much knowledge so in other words his wisdom lies in acknowledging his own ignorance. Socrates sums his theory up by saying that the oracle was right and that human wisdom is worth ?little or nothing (Allen 43).? The oracle intended to apply, not to Socrates, but to all men who knew that their wisdom is worth nothing (Allen 43). The third most stressed theme is death. This began with Meletus (second class of accusers) saying that Socrates is an atheist and he was corrupting the youth: ?I mean that. You acknowledge no gods at all (Allen 47).? Meletus goes on how that Socrates is an atheist and says, ?not when he says the Sun is a stone and the Moon earth? which means Meletus has confounded Socrates with Anaxagoras, which said these things (Allen 47). Therefore, Socrates put Meletus down and said no one should believe him and that Meletus probably cannot even believe in himself: ?You cannot be believed, Meletus?even, I think, by yourself? (Allen 47). Someone asked Socrates ?Are you ashamed that now you may be put to death? and he had a reply