¶ … 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...

First, that the highest good was that which is sought for its own sake rather than for the sake of some other objective, and that therefore neither wealth, nor power, nor sex, nor even life itself, or any of these physical things could be the highest good -- but rather the highest good must be those things which are sought from life, such as happiness and truth. As Socrates explains, "I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul." (Socrates) Second, that truth could not be known in this life, for all men are inherently ignorant of the meaning of the world -- and so the good must be in seeking truth, in asking questions, and examining our lives so that we might at least not fall into falsehood. "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." (Socrates) Finally, that death itself might be a way to access the greatest good because it could strip the veil from life and allow the eyes to finally see truth: "no one knows whether death, which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good." (Socrates) Of these ideas, the first is certainly the most clear in the Apology, and the value of seeking truth is Socrates' primary defense against those who demand his life (though his lack of fear from death is his greatest response).
All three of these points may be collapsed into a single idea regarding the value…