Plato's Apology contains the story around the trial and death of the philosopher Socrates. The work has been studied by many a scholar for its information about the philosopher as well as some of the systems of Greek culture and law at the time. Socrates uses his trial to make several statements about his life, how he lived it, and how he feels about meeting his death. Hence, although Socrates' accusers reach their goal of removing Socrates from society, the philosopher does not see this as defeat. Instead, he takes pleasure in the fact that he has had a good, long life filled with adventures and connections that brought him satisfaction and joy. In Plato's Apology, one can therefore identify the basic structure of the Athenian legal system at the time, the nature and substance of the accusations against him, and his response to these in terms of relying only on an account of his life to defend himself.
The structure of the Athenian legal system at the time seems to have been made up of the judges, jury, prosecutors and defenders, along with the accusers and the accused. Although witnesses are allowed for both the prosecution and defense, no witnesses are mentioned in any of the apologetic writings. Both prosecutors and defenders would then read prepared speeches before the jury, who would then make final decisions about the guilt or innocence of the accused (Navia, 2007, p. 95). Within Athens' democratic system, this was considered a fair trial, with the accused having the right to defend himself against his accusers and prosecutors. The accused also has the right to use professional defense lawyers, along with professional orators to compose speeches for him.
In the Apology, Socrates makes it clear that there are three accusers who made three accusations against him. The three accusers are Meletus,...
Meletus, on behalf of the poets, Anytus, on behalf of the craftsmen, and Lycon, on behalf of the rhetoricians, accuse Socrates of three main things: Being a "doer of evil," corrupting the
youth, and his apparent lack of adherence to the accepted state religion. Socrates uses his
power of
speech and
philosophy to respond to each in turn.
To the accusation that he is a corruptor of the youth, Socrates shows the absurdity of Meletus' claim that everybody improves the youth, with Socrates their only corruptor. Not only does he show this to be impossible in terms of sheer scale, but also demonstrates logically with the example of a horse trainer that he cannot be the sole corruptor of the youth. As for the accusation that he does not adhere to the state religion, Socrates notes several inconsistencies, including the accusation that he is an atheist. Socrates argues that, in believing in
spirituality, he must necessarily also believe in gods. Socrates uses both these arguments to show that he is not evil, but good.
At the start of his Apology, Socrates mentions his "old" accusers; during his lifetime of philosophy and public speech, there were those who would level accusations against him from time to time. One of these accusations was that Socrates is an "evil-doer," which is the same accusation that Meletus and the others have against him. It appears that this is a common accusation that was easy for Meletus and his friends simply to take over.
Another old accusation is against Socrates' tendency to investigate and study phenomena. Specifically, the accusers note that Socrates is a "curious person," who looks for information about things that are, it appears, better left unstirred. This accusation does not appear to have a clear equivalent in Meletus' accusation, except if one uses Socrates'
religion as one of them. It appears that Socrates has somewhat of a taste for investigating religious alternatives rather than blindly following the state gods. Hence, he investigates things that, according to his accusers are sacred and should not be investigated.
The final parts of the "old" accusations hold that Socrates makes the "worse" appear
"better" and teaches this…
