you think he was so charged? Is Socrates being charged with being
a Sophist? Is he being accused of offering scientific explanations for
religious matters?
2. Why doesn’t Socrates plead for a lesser charge? Why couldn’t he ac-
cept exile?
3. How does Socrates show that he does not corrupt the young people of
Athens? Are his arguments convincing?
1.
Plato, The Apology. Trans. Benjamin Jowlett. 380 BC.
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4. Explain Socrates’ defense of his belief in God. How persuasive do
you find it?
5. What is Socrates’ philosophy of life? Why has it been called paradox-
ical?
6. Explain why Socrates compares himself to a “gadfly.” What does he
mean when he uses this term?
Reading Selection from The Apology , I
[Socrates Requests a Just Listening]
How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell;
but I know that they almost made me forget who I was—so persuasively
did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth. But of the
many falsehoods told by them, there was one which quite amazed me;—I
mean when they said that you should be upon your guard and not allow
yourselves to be deceived by the force of my eloquence. To say this, when
they were certain to be detected as soon as I opened my lips and proved
myself to be anything but a great speaker, did indeed appear to me most
shameless—unless by the force of eloquence they mean the force of truth;
for is such is their meaning, I admit that I am eloquent. But in how different
a way from theirs! Well, as I was saying, they have scarcely spoken the
truth at all; but from me you shall hear the whole truth: not, however,
delivered after their manner in a set oration duly ornamented with words
and phrases. No, by heaven! but I shall use the words and arguments which
occur to me at the moment; for I am confident in the justice of my cause
(Or, I am certain that I am right in taking this course.): at my time of life
I ought not to be appearing before you, O men of Athens, in the character
of a juvenile orator—let no one expect it of me. And I must beg of you
to grant me a favour:—If I defend myself in my accustomed manner, and
you hear me using the words which I have been in the habit of using in
the agora, at the tables of the money-changers, or anywhere else, I would
ask you not to be surprised, and not to interrupt me on this account. For I
am more than seventy years of age, and appearing now for the first time
in a court of law, I am quite a stranger to the language of the place; and
therefore I would have you regard me as if I were really a stranger, whom
you would excuse if he spoke in his native tongue, and after the fashion
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of his country:—Am I making an unfair request of you? Never mind the
manner, which may or may not be good; but think only of the truth of
my words, and give heed to that: let the speaker speak truly and the judge
decide justly.
Side View of Thes¯eum, Smith, A History of Greece, 1855. A Doric Temple
of 5th century BC
[Charges of the Older Accusers]
And first, I have to reply to the older charges and to my first accusers,
and then I will go on to the later ones. For of old I have had many ac-
cusers, who have accused me falsely to you during many years; and I am
more afraid of them than of Anytus and his associates, who are dangerous,
too, in their own way. But far more dangerous are the others, who began
when you were children, and took possession of your minds with their
falsehoods, telling of one Socrates, a wise man, who speculated about the
heaven above, and searched into the earth beneath, and made the worse
appear the better cause. The disseminators of this tale are the accusers
whom I dread; for their hearers are apt to fancy that such enquirers do not
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believe in the existence of the gods. And they are many, and their charges
against me are of ancient date, and they were made by them in the days
when you were more impressible than you are now—in childhood, or it
may have been in youth—and the cause when heard went by default, for
there was none to answer. And hardest of all, I do not know and cannot
tell the names of my accusers; unless in the chance case of a Comic poet.
All who from envy and malice have persuaded you—some of them hav-
ing first convinced themselves—all this class of men are most difficult to
deal with; for I cannot have them up here, and cross-examine them, and
therefore I must simply fight with shadows in my own defence, and argue
when there is no one who answers. I will ask you then to assume with
me, as I was saying, that my opponents are of two kinds; one recent, the
other ancient: and I hope that you will see the propriety of my answering
the latter first, for these accusations you heard long before the others, and
much oftener.
Well, then, I must make my defence, and endeavour to clear away in a
short time, a slander which has lasted a long time. May I succeed, if to
succeed be for my good and yours, or likely to avail me in my cause! The
task is not an easy one; I quite understand the nature of it. And so leaving
the event with God, in obedience to the law I will now make my defence.
[Defense Against Older Accusations]
I will begin at the beginning, and ask what is the accusation which has
given rise to the slander of me, and in fact has encouraged Meletus to
proof this charge against me. Well, what do the slanderers say? They shall
be my prosecutors, and I will sum up their words in an affidavit: “Socrates
is an evil-doer, and a curious person, who searches into things under the
earth and in heaven, and he makes the worse appear the better cause; and
he teaches the aforesaid doctrines to others.” Such is the nature of the ac-
cusation: it is just what you have yourselves seen in the comedy of Aristo-
phanes, who has introduced a man whom he calls Socrates, going about
and saying that he walks in air, and talking a deal of nonsense concerning
matters of which I do not pretend to know either much or little—not that
I mean to speak disparagingly of any one who is a student of natural phi-
losophy. I should be very sorry if Meletus could bring so grave a charge
against me. But the simple truth is, O Athenians, that I have nothing to do
with physical speculations. Very many of those here present are witnesses
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to the truth of this, and to them I appeal. Speak then, you who have heard
me, and tell your neighbours whether any of you have ever known me hold
forth in few words or in many upon such matters. . . You hear their answer.
And from what they say of this part of the charge you will be able to judge
of the truth of the rest.
As little foundation is there for the report that I am a teacher, and take
money; this accusation has no more truth in it than the other. Although, if
a man were really able to instruct mankind, to receive money for giving
instruction would, in my opinion, be an honour to him. There is Gorgias
of Leontium, and Prodicus of Ceos, and Hippias of Elis, who go the round
of the cities, and are able to persuade the young men to leave their own
citizens by whom they might be taught for nothing, and come to them
whom they not only pay, but are thankful if they may be allowed to pay
them. There is at this time a Parian philosopher residing in Athens, of
whom I have heard; and I came to hear of him in this way:—I came across
a man who has spent a world of money on the Sophists, Callias, the son
of Hipponicus, and knowing that he had sons, I asked him: “Callias,” I
said, “if your two sons were foals or calves, there would be no difficulty
in finding some one to put over them; we should hire a trainer of horses,
or a farmer probably, who would improve and perfect them in their own
proper virtue and excellence; but as they are human beings, whom are you
thinking of placing over them? Is there any one who understands human
and political virtue? You must have thought about the matter, for you have
sons; is there any one?” “There is,” he said. “Who is he?” said I; “and of
what country? and what does he charge?” “Evenus the Parian,” he replied;
“he is the man, and his charge is five minae.” Happy is Evenus, I said
to myself, if he really has this wisdom, and teaches at such a moderate
charge. Had I the same, I should have been very proud and conceited; but
the truth is that I have no knowledge of the kind.
[Delphic Oracle]
I dare say, Athenians, that some one among you will reply, “Yes, Socrates,
but what is the origin of these accusations which are brought against you;
there must have been something strange which you have been doing? All
these rumours and this talk about you would never have arisen if you had
been like other men: tell us, then, what is the cause of them, for we should
be sorry to judge hastily of you.” Now I regard this as a fair challenge,
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and I will endeavour to explain to you the reason why I am called wise
and have such an evil fame. Please to attend then. And although some of
you may think that I am joking, I declare that I will tell you the entire
truth. Men of Athens, this reputation of mine has come of a certain sort
of wisdom which I possess. If you ask me what kind of wisdom, I reply,
wisdom such as may perhaps be attained by man, for to that extent I am
inclined to believe that I am wise; whereas the persons of whom I was
speaking have a superhuman wisdom which I may fail to describe, because
I have it not myself; and he who says that I have, speaks falsely, and is
taking away my character. And here, O men of Athens, I must beg you not
to interrupt me, even if I seem to say something extravagant. For the word
which I will speak is not mine. I will refer you to a witness who is worthy
of credit; that witness shall be the God of Delphi—he will tell you about
my wisdom, if I have any, and of what sort it is. You must have known
Chaerephon; he was early a friend of mine, and also a friend of yours,
for he shared in the recent exile of the people, and returned with you.
Well, Chaerephon, as you know, was very impetuous in all his doings, and
he went to Delphi and boldly asked the oracle to tell him whether—as I
was saying, I must beg you not to interrupt—he asked the oracle to tell
him whether anyone was wiser than I was, and the Pythian prophetess
answered, that there was no man wiser. Chaerephon is dead himself; but
his brother, who is in court, will confirm the truth of what I am saying.
Coin of Athens, Smith, A History of Greece, 1855
[Socrates Cross-examines Others]
Why do I mention this? Because I am going to explain to you why I have
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such an evil name. When I heard the answer, I said to myself, What can
the god mean? and what is the interpretation of his riddle? for I know
that I have no wisdom, small or great. What then can he mean when he
says that I am the wisest of men? And yet he is a god, and cannot lie;
that would be against his nature. After long consideration, I thought of a
method of trying the question. I reflected that if I could only find a man
wiser than myself, then I might go to the god with a refutation in my
hand. I should say to him, “Here is a man who is wiser than I am; but
you said that I was the wisest.” Accordingly I went to one who had the
reputation of wisdom, and observed him—his name I need not mention;
he was a politician whom I selected for examination—and the result was
as follows: When I began to talk with him, I could not help thinking that he
was not really wise, although he was thought wise by many, and still wiser
by himself; and thereupon I tried to explain to him that he thought himself
wise, but was not really wise; and the consequence was that he hated me,
and his enmity was shared by several who were present and heard me.
So I left him, saying to myself, as I went away: Well, although I do not
suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am
better off than he is,— for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I
neither know nor think that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to
have slightly the advantage of him. Then I went to another who had still
higher pretensions to wisdom, and my conclusion was exactly the same.
Whereupon I made another enemy of him, and of many others besides
him.
Then I went to one man after another, being not unconscious of the enmity
which I provoked, and I lamented and feared this: but necessity was laid
upon me,—the word of God, I thought, ought to be considered first. And
I said to myself, Go I must to all who appear to know, and find out the
meaning of the oracle. And I swear to you, Athenians, by the dog I swear!
—for I must tell you the truth—the result of my mission was just this: I
found that the men most in repute were all but the most foolish; and that
others less esteemed were really wiser and better. I will tell you the tale of
my wanderings and of the “Herculean” labours, as I may call them, which
I endured only to find at last the oracle irrefutable. After the politicians,
I went to the poets; tragic, dithyrambic, and all sorts. And there, I said to
myself, you will be instantly detected; now you will find out that you are
more ignorant than they are. Accordingly, I took them some of the most
elaborate passages in their own writings, and asked what was the meaning
of them—thinking that they would teach me something. Will you believe
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me? I am almost ashamed to confess the truth, but I must say that there
is hardly a person present who would not have talked better about their
poetry than they did themselves. Then I knew that not by wisdom do poets
write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like diviners
or soothsayers who also say many fine things, but do not understand the
meaning of them. The poets appeared to me to be much in the same case;
and I further observed that upon the strength of their poetry they believed
themselves to be the wisest of men in other things in which they were not
wise. So I departed, conceiving myself to be superior to them for the same
reason that I was superior to the politicians.
At last I went to the artisans. I was conscious that I knew nothing at all,
as I may say, and I was sure that they knew many fine things; and here I
was not mistaken, for they did know many things of which I was ignorant,
and in this they certainly were wiser than I was. But I observed that even
the good artisans fell into the same error as the poets;—because they were
good workmen they thought that they also knew all sorts of high matters,
and this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom; and therefore I asked
myself on behalf of the oracle, whether I would like to be as I was, neither
having their knowledge nor their ignorance, or like them in both; and I
made answer to myself and to the oracle that I was better off as I was.
[Why Socrates is Wise]
This inquisition has led to my having many enemies of the worst and most
dangerous kind, and has given occasion also to many calumnies. And I am
called wise, for my hearers always imagine that I myself possess the wis-
dom which I find wanting in others: but the truth is, O men of Athens, that
God only is wise; and by his answer he intends to show that the wisdom of
men is worth little or nothing; he is not speaking of Socrates, he is only us-
ing my name by way of illustration, as if he said, He, O men, is the wisest,
who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing. And
so I go about the world, obedient to the god, and search and make enquiry
into the wisdom of any one, whether citizen or stranger, who appears to
be wise; and if he is not wise, then in vindication of the oracle I show him
that he is not wise; and my occupation quite absorbs me, and I have no
time to give either to any public matter of interest or to any concern of my
own, but I am in utter poverty by reason of my devotion to the god.
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[Prejudice Against Socrates]
There is another thing:—young men of the richer classes, who have not
much to do, come about me of their own accord; they like to hear the
pretenders examined, and they often imitate me, and proceed to examine
others; there are plenty of persons, as they quickly discover, who think that
they know something, but really know little or nothing; and then those who
are examined by them instead of being angry with themselves are angry
with me: This confounded Socrates, they say; this villainous misleader of
youth!— and then if somebody asks them, Why, what evil does he prac-
tise or teach? they do not know, and cannot tell; but in order that they may
not appear to be at a loss, they repeat the ready-made charges which are
used against all philosophers about teaching things up in the clouds and
under the earth, and having no gods, and making the worse appear the
better cause; for they do not like to confess that their pretence of knowl-
edge has been detected— which is the truth; and as they are numerous
and ambitious and energetic, and are drawn up in battle array and have
persuasive tongues, they have filled your ears with their loud and invet-
erate calumnies. And this is the reason why my three accusers, Meletus
and Anytus and Lycon, have set upon me; Meletus, who has a quarrel with
me on behalf of the poets; Anytus, on behalf of the craftsmen and politi-
cians; Lycon, on behalf of the rhetoricians: and as I said at the beginning,
I cannot expect to get rid of such a mass of calumny all in a moment. And
this, O men of Athens, is the truth and the whole truth; I have concealed
nothing, I have dissembled nothing. And yet, I know that my plainness of
speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof that I
am speaking the truth?—Hence has arisen the prejudice against me; and
this is the reason of it, as you will find out either in this or in any future
enquiry.
From the reading. . .
“. . . for I know that I have no wisdom, small or great. What then can
he mean when he says that I am the wisest of men?”
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[Defense Against Corruption of the Youth]
I have said enough in my defence against the first class of my accusers; I
turn to the second class. They are headed by Meletus, that good man and
true lover of his country, as he calls himself. Against these, too, I must try
to make a defence:—Let their affidavit be read: it contains something of
this kind: It says that Socrates is a doer of evil, who corrupts the youth;
and who does not believe in the gods of the state, but has other new divini-
ties of his own. Such is the charge; and now let us examine the particular
counts. He says that I am a doer of evil, and corrupt the youth; but I say, O
men of Athens, that Meletus is a doer of evil, in that he pretends to be in
earnest when he is only in jest, and is so eager to bring men to trial from a
pretended zeal and interest about matters in which he really never had the
smallest interest. And the truth of this I will endeavour to prove to you.
The Propylæa of the Acropolis Restored, Smith, A History of Greece, 1855
Come hither, Meletus, and let me ask a question of you. You think a great
deal about the improvement of youth?
Yes, I do.
Tell the judges, then, who is their improver; for you must know, as you
have taken the pains to discover their corrupter, and are citing and accus-
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ing me before them. Speak, then, and tell the judges who their improver
is—observe, Meletus, that you are silent, and have nothing to say. But is
not this rather disgraceful, and a very considerable proof of what I was
saying, that you have no interest in the matter? Speak up, friend, and tell
us who their improver is.
The laws.
But that, my good sir, is not my meaning. I want to know who the person
is, who, in the first place, knows the laws.
The judges, Socrates, who are present in court.
What, do you mean to say, Meletus, that they are able to instruct and im-
prove youth?
Certainly they are.
What, all of them, or some only and not others?
All of them.
By the goddess Here, that is good news! There are plenty of improvers,
then. And what do you say of the audience—do they improve them?
Yes, they do.
And the senators?
Yes, the senators improve them.
But perhaps the members of the assembly corrupt them?—or do they too
improve them?
They improve them.
Then every Athenian improves and elevates them; all with the exception
of myself; and I alone am their corrupter? Is that what you affirm?
That is what I stoutly affirm.
I am very unfortunate if you are right. But suppose I ask you a question:
How about horses? Does one man do them harm and all the world good?
Is not the exact opposite the truth? One man is able to do them good, or
at least not many;—the trainer of horses, that is to say, does them good,
and others who have to do with them rather injure them? Is not that true,
Meletus, of horses, or of any other animals? Most assuredly it is; whether
you and Anytus say yes or no. Happy indeed would be the condition of
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youth if they had one corrupter only, and all the rest of the world were
their improvers. But you, Meletus, have sufficiently shown that you never
had a thought about the young: your carelessness is seen in your not caring
about the very things which you bring against me.
And now, Meletus, I will ask you another question—by Zeus I will: Which
is better, to live among bad citizens, or among good ones? Answer, friend,
I say; the question is one which may be easily answered. Do not the good