Reflection Of Socrates: The Apology In His Death Trial

The Apology is the speech that was delivered by Socrates in his death trial. In the Athenian jury, an apology was composed of three parts. The first was the speech, which was followed by a counter-assessment, and then the final words. The word apology comes from a Greek word, “Apologia,” which means not regretting anything. His intention during the apology was not to acquit himself from any accusations, but to ensure that he would be found guilty and hence be condemned to death. Yet, if he believed that his moral course was to achieve philosophical justice, virtue and truth by scrutinizing life to the fullest, it was not clear why he would give up his life for a crime he did not commit. However, Socrates concluded that the most important thing

He calls on one of his accusers and carried out a cross examination. Socrates wonders that if he had such bad influence on the youth, what then had the good influence they desired. Was there anything worth rememberance to be good that he had impacted on the youth.Meletus, the accuser, believed that the law made people good, and that was the reason why they had brought Socrates to the court. Socrates persisted until Meletus moved from claiming that the jurymen and councilors had good influence to admitting that the entire Athens population had good influence on the youth. Socrates then drew an analogy using horses. He said that only the horse trainers had positive influence on horses while most people would have a negative one as trainers were very specialized (19c).Skills as well good knowledge brought about by years of doing the work of horse training was required to bring about a positive influence on the horses He therefore concludes that if it takes such expertise to improve horses, it would be crazy to think that anyone could improve another person. It was just impossible for such a thing to

This is because all have been done for a good cause and to encourage the Athenians to pursue a good life. The Apology gives an account of Socrates defense, while the Crito is another account of how Crito, one of Socrates friends went to jail to persuade him to escape. Crito among other of his friends feared that if Socrates was executed, the public would say that they did nothing to help their friend. Yet, Socrates does not concur with this way of doing things. He believes that no one should worry about what others think but as he said in the defense, he is ready to lose his life as long as he is pursuing what is good. I agree with Socrates since how else could the jury find him innocent if he showed fear. Besides, he did what he did for the good of the society (44b). Therefore, he has nothing to fear and his conscience was clean even as he waited for execution. He stood his ground with his beliefs and that served as an example of other who shared same sediments but had fear in expressing