¶ … Good Life / the Good Death:
Ideas of the Greater Good and Highest Pursuit in Plato's Death of Socrates / Apology
When Plato was still a boy, he witnessed the trial and execution of Socrates. Historians tell us that during the trial he attempted to speak out in defense of the great philosopher. "Plato mounted the platform and began: 'Though I am the youngest, men of Athens, of all who ever rose to address you' -- whereupon the judges shouted out, 'Get down! Get down!' " (Laertius) Perhaps in his youth Plato would indeed have known very little, and had no great wisdom to add to the debate. If this is true, then according to Socratic ideas he would certainly have been the best advocate of all, for Socrates' entire defense lay upon the point that the truest wisdom lay in recognizing one's ignorance, and that the ultimate truth in life could only be found when one first acknowledged that nothing was known. In childhood then, perhaps Plato was closer to an understanding of Socrates than he ever would be again, and it is not surprising that the Apology (also titled Death of Socrates) as Plato's earliest writing would have been his clearest. In this book, far more so than in more esoteric writings such as The Republic, Plato (summarizing Socrates' words) makes a powerful case for the idea that the highest good is to live a thoroughly examined life -- to question everything so that the true wellsprings of virtue may be found, and to humbly accept one's ignorance before the faces of the gods, so that one might most ably accept the fate which they grant.
If one were to ask Socrates what the greatest good might be, he would no doubt respond with a question and the conversation would inevitably walk in circles for hours as the definition of virtue was hopelessly sought. Yet in the end, if one...
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