Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher. He lived in Athens, where he taught and talked leading debates with accidental passers-by on the streets. Socrates thought that good and virtue are the most important value in life. In the 399 BC Meletus made an accusation against Socrates that he commit crimes because he do not believe in gods but create some new and also he corrupt the youth of Athens. Socrates had to stand trial. It is known from Apology of Socrates that he was found guilty and sentenced him to death penalty by poisoning. In my opinion it was not a good decision, I think Socrates was innocent. He was teaching and talking with people honestly and openly, he did not hide. He wanted to give some knowledge to others and he even did not get money from that. Maybe he is guilty due to irritating authority with awareness. But he did not deserve for such punishment. I will try to prove that Meletus was not right. …show more content…
The Delphic oracle told to his friend Chaerephon that Socrates is the wisest man on earth. However, he did not think in that way and tried to prove that the oracle had not right. When he started to talk with people it turned out that the politicians are arrogant and not so clever, poets do not understand their own work, manual artisans considered themselves to be so smart in all areas, however, they know only their craftsmanship. When Socrates showed their ignorance, he became hated. Although he only wanted to prove that human wisdom is not so important and has not the biggest value in life. Moreover, he was just about to show that real wisdom belongs only to the gods. Socrates wisdom consisted in realizing his ignorance. Other people did not confess to their ignorance, they thought that they know everything. Socrates was aware of that he can do not know something, compared to others. And for him it was natural, when other people did not want to confess to their
Many judges and civilians questioned the intentions of Socrates. They believed he was corrupting their youth and making them go against the beliefs they had been taught by the law, their state and their parents. The intent of questioning and cross-examination, which Socrates often did, was not to make people feel inferior but to make them understand the shallowness of their knowledge. Being skilled in one area, Socrates believed, does not make you wise in all tings. You must be willing to explore and desire a deeper understanding of all things. Socrates wanted Meletus to understand that he was not trying to corrupt the youth or make them deny the gods of the state, but rather, “believe in divine and spiritual agencies” that encourage virtue and doing good to all men. Socrates believed that one should not fear death and punishment if they are doing what they believe to be good, and a person cannot make themselves better by accusing, punishing, or killing a person who questions their knowledge and beliefs. They only way to improve ourselves is by taking what our accusers say about us and digging into the meaning of it. By doing this we can search for understanding and try to make ourselves better. As Socrates says, “the life which is unexamined is not worth living.”
Socrates put one’s quest for wisdom and the instruction of others above everything else in life. A simple man both in the way he talked and the wealth he owned, he believed that simplicity in whatever one did was the best way of acquiring knowledge and passing it unto others. He is famous for saying that “the unexplained life is not worth living.” He endeavored therefore to break down the arguments of those who talked with a flowery language and boasted of being experts in given subjects (Rhees 30). His aim was to show that the person making a claim on wisdom and knowledge was in fact a confused one whose clarity about a given subject was far from what they claimed. Socrates, in all his simplicity never advanced any theories of his own but rather aimed at bringing out the worst in his interlocutors.
In “The Apology of Socrates,” Socrates shares his view of his fellow Athenian citizens; he accuses these citizens of caring more about their wealth and reputation than about wisdom, truth, and the state of their souls. Socrates deems “wisdom, truth, or the best possible state of your souls” to be more important to a meaningful life. One of the reasons Socrates is on trial is because he is accused of corrupting the youth. When roaming the streets, after being called the man with the most wisdom, he begins to ask all the smartest people he can find to ask them questions. He begins to realize that the people in power are not that smart after all. Socrates comes to the conclusion that the people with power and reputation have essentially denied to themselves that they do not know, and pretended that they do. This led to the idea of Socratic Wisdom, which is basically knowing that you do not know. This idea of putting reputation over truth and wisdom is very much still prevalent today, and could even be considered human nature.
Socrates is one of the greatest logicians humankind has ever produced. All the scholars before him engaged in different trivial matters regarding more concrete aspects of our reality, such as mathematics or natural phenomenon, but Socrates was different. Socrates sought out more intrapersonal questions, he devoted his entire life seeking out answers to these questions. Eventually this ambition led him to a notorious standing within his city of Athens, eventually leading to his trial and execution. The rebounding question that comes from this is “Should Socrates have stayed in prison and faced his execution?”. This is controversial because Socrates was wrongly convicted in his trial, but disregarding that he
A. Under trial for corrupting youth and not worshiping the Gods in Athens, Socrates takes an attitude that many might interpret as pompous during his trial. Rather than apologise, as Plato’s dialogue title Apology suggests, Socrates explains why he is right and those who accused him are mistaken. He speaks in a plain manner, as if the jury is just another of his followers. Socrates first cites the profit at Delphi for why he behaves in ways that lead to him being under scrutiny of the law. He explains that his friend, Chaerephon, went to ask the oracle if anyone is wiser than Socrates and the oracle responded no (21a). Socrates then explains his interpretation of this being that he is wise in knowing that he does not know certain things, where
In conclusion, Socrates was guilty of inventing his own deity, which violated the Athenian laws and the general moral principle held by Athenians, though his main purpose was to improve the society and educate the youth through questioning. However, he was a great citizen and thinker in ancient Athens, since he developed a new value system which did guide the people to the truth and rightness, despite the fact that some part of defense was not convincing and involved sophistry. In addition, the legal system of Athens had some defects for it let the majority rather than professional judges or lawmakers make judgment, leading to the tragedy of Socrates’ death.
In the retelling of his trial by his associate, Plato, entitled “The Apology”; Socrates claims in his defense that he only wishes to do good for the polis. I believe that Socrates was innocent of the accusations that were made against him, but he possessed contempt for the court and displayed that in his conceitedness and these actions led to his death.
Socrates, in his conviction from the Athenian jury, was both innocent and guilty as charged. In Plato’s Five Dialogues, accounts of events ranging from just prior to Socrates’ entry into the courthouse up until his mouthful of hemlock, both points are represented. Socrates’ in dealing with moral law was not guilty of the crimes he was accused of by Meletus. Socrates was only guilty as charged because his peers had concluded him as such. The laws didn’t find Socrates guilty; Socrates was guilty because his jurors enforced the laws. The law couldn’t enforce itself. Socrates was accused of corrupting Athens’ youth, not believing in the gods of the city and creating his own gods. In the Euthyphro, Socrates defends himself against the blasphemous charges outside the courthouse to a priest Euthyphro. Socrates looks to the priest to tell him what exactly is pious so that he may educate himself as to why he would be perceived as impious. Found in the Apology, another of Plato’s Five Dialogues, Socrates aims to defend his principles to the five hundred and one person jury. Finally, the Crito, an account of Socrates’ final discussion with his good friend Crito, Socrates is offered an opportunity to escape the prison and his death sentence. As is known, Socrates rejected the suggestion. It is in the Euthyphro and the Apology that it can be deduced that Socrates is not guilty as charged, he had done nothing wrong and he properly defended himself. However, in the Crito, it is shown that Socrates is guilty only in the interpretation and enforcement of Athens’ laws through the court system and its jurors. Socrates’ accusations of being blasphemous are also seen as being treasonous.
Ancient Athens was the site of a growing culture. Philosophy was among the many improvements and discoveries being made. With these improvements and discoveries, great thinkers were able to stretch out their knowledge to new heights. The society they lived in, both welcomed and shunned their ideals. Socrates was one of these thinkers. It was because of Socrates open-mindedness that he was sentenced to death by two charges brought against him. One, Socrates corrupted the youth and two, Socrates believed in ‘false gods’. Yet, was Socrates guilty or not?
Socrates was executed after a trial in which he was accused of corrupting the youths of Athens, and committing acts of impiety. These accusations were brought to the court by a small group of men. Meletus was the speaker representing the group of accusers, while Socrates defended himself. The jury of 501 Athenians voted to execute Socrates on these accusations, but this extreme outcome was not planned out (Stone 78). The initial object of the trial was to get Socrates out of Athens, and he would just move a...
In Plato’s apology, the story is told of how Chaerephon, friend of Socrates, went to the temple at Delphi to ask the oracle a question pertaining to the wisdom of Socrates, and how it compares to the rest of the men on earth. “He asked if any man was wiser than I, and the Pythian replied that no one was wiser” (Plato). This response was very confusing to Socrates because he recognized that he was not wise at all, and it troubled him for some time. Socrates then tries to refute the oracle by bringing a supposedly wise man from town to the temple to show the Pythian that he was wrong, but when they get there, Socrates realizes that the wise man was not wise at all, and neither of them knew anything really worth knowing. He sees only one
In the Apology, Socrates was told by the Delphic Oracle that there was nobody wiser than him. With ancient Greece having been a prominent home of philosophy and art since before Socrates' time, the Athenian court found his proclamation both insulting and hard to believe. Socrates goes through great lengths to find the wisest of men and seeing if their reputations are in fact true. He hoped to find a man wiser than him to prove the oracles prediction was false, even Socrates failed to believe he was the wisest man. He first went to a man that seemed wise. After he spoke with him Plato quotes "I came to see that, though many persons, and chiefly himself, thought that he was wise, yet he was not wise."(77) With his certainty that Socrates was wiser, the man was insulted and hated Socrates for derailing his intelligence. Socrates then goes to another wise man, but is again let down. He still believes he is wiser. Convinced that he would not find a more intelligent man amongst wise men, he then questioned the more "educated people", such as poets and artisans. According to Plato, Socrates says "I imagine, they find a great abundance of men who think that they know a great...
Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher. “He is credited with laying the fundamentals of modern Western philosophy. He is known for creating Socratic irony and the Socratic Method (elenchus). He is best recognized for inventing the teaching practice of pedagogy, wherein a teacher questions a student in a manner that draws out the correct response” (Ancient Greece). Socrates was sentenced to death for refusing to obey the orders of the Athenian government to refrain from discussing philosophical questions with young. The government was afraid that Socrates would turn the youth against them. Socrates refused and, as a consequence, he was condemned to death. While in prison Socrates closet friend, Crito came to break Socrates out. Socrates
He possesses the qualities by his account but also by the assignment of others. According to Socrates the definition of human wisdom is the acknowledgment and understanding of the limitations to solely crediting one 's knowledge of things. Socrates showed that he possessed these qualities when he acknowledged that there are unique skills and perspectives that people of other trades have, such as poets and craftsmen (Plato 22c-d). Even though he did not necessarily possess these qualities himself, he felt like they were something to be admired (Plato 22c-d). Socrates labeled as wise by others. Others such as Plato and the Oracle have also attested to Socrates’ wisdom by looking to him as an inspiration and deeming that “none is wiser than he” (Plato 21c). Socrates was a wise man because his knowledge did not restrain him and his wisdom was not contained to him. He wanted to learn more and know more and encouraged others to do the same. That being said, Socrates became a victim of his wisdom because of other 's
Socrates was a philosopher who set out to prove, to the gods, that he wasn't the wisest man. Since he could not afford a "good" Sophist teacher, surely a student of one had to be smarter than he. He decides to converse with the youth of Athens, but concludes that he actually is wiser than everyone he speaks with. He then realizes that their lack of intelligence is the fault of their teachers. Socrates understands that the practice of "sophism" leads to a lack of self-knowledge and moral values. Socrates was later accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and put on trial. In The Apology of Socrates he sta...