Socrates: Offering Legal Counsel
Socrates, the charges that you face are serious ones. For many years, you were allowed to wander the streets of Athens, advocating your moral philosophy of ideal governance. Your concept of 'philosopher kings' having the right to rule, versus the ordinary populace, was profoundly at odds with the ideology commonly espoused in democratic Athens. For many years, you were allowed to speak as you wished. But gradually, as fears of tyranny began to creep into the average Athenian citizen's mind, your ideas began to fall out of favor.

The first charge against you is impiety. Your attackers claim that you worship no gods at all. However, you must point out that in Athens, the freedom of speech that is advocated in our land has always allowed us to address the gods in humorous as well as a serious fashion. Just as you, Socrates, have been mocked in the….

The Defense of Socrates Plato’s Apology also known as the part of the sequence of the Trial of Socrates scenes shows the famous philosopher pleading his defense before the committee of Athens that has decided it is his fate to die for corrupting the youth. His sentence does not bother him and he respects the decision of the state, acknowledging that it has the right to decide these matters. He objects, however, to the notion that he is being harmed by the decision, as it is his belief that the lesser cannot harm the greater. The greater, by virtue of its very essence, exists above the lesser and thus is not afflicted by the same pettiness that afflicts the lesser. Socrates, in other words, has his eyes on the transcendental ideal—the one, the good, and the true. He notes, “I do not think it is permitted that a better man be….

Socrates as Not an Enemy to the State
as Socrates an enemy of the state? There are two appropriate answers -- "yes" and "no." But first a definition of "enemy" is needed. In Mark Twain's short story "The Mysterious Stranger," Satan explains why there will always be war. It is because "a loud little handful" at first instigates it then, "…the great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war… [and later] statesmen… [will] blame…the nation that is attacked" -- in other words, as long as the "enemy" is identified, there will always be war. Therefore, an "enemy" is not just someone to distrust or despise, or someone who threatens the peace and safety of a community, but someone to blame. In the case of Socrates and his trial, the court apparently found Socrates to be an….

Socrates' speech in Plato's Apology. It is this author's opinion that Socrates' position that the unexamined life is not worth living has validity. We will see that this is the case as we examine Socrates' spontaneous oration regarding virtue and how it can not be learned. Obviously, if the lives of these youths had been virtuous, then it might have been possible for them to learn this character trait and to prove Socrates wrong. This is the case because only when someone examines their life do they shake off their bigotry and raise their awareness to a higher level.
As alluded to in the introduction, Socrates is correct that the unexamined life is not worth living. This is because only those people who struggle to resolve the contradictions in their life have an existence that is real. Those who do not are at best ignorant and at worst bigots who….

As someone might say today, the lack of knowledge as a result of not willing to search for it is no excuse. How can anyone be sure to do right since the truth remains hidden? Socrates thinking was aimed at making his fellow humans who were willing to listen to him aware of the dangers of doing wrong by not being willing to question the truth or what it was known as the truth.
ne cannot help and wonder what would have happened if Socrates had accepted the jury's forgiveness in exchange for giving up his beliefs. Certainly, a life long work would have went to pieces and be destroyed. His credibility in front of his contemporary disciples, like Plato and all those who followed them would have been for ever shattered. Even if they understood his fear in front of what appears to be the most frightful opponent of….

Socrates
The main themes of Plato's Apology are the great irony of many of Socrates' claims, his use of the Socratic method of teaching, and his surprising strategy of questioning the fundamental validity of his trial itself, rather than putting on a vigorous and elegant defense of his actions as was expected by both his supporters and detractors, and likely by the people of the jury. Plato's Apology is a detailed account of the 399 BC trial of the great philosopher Socrates, in which Socrates was on trial for his life after being accused by Meletus, an ambitious young Athenian, and others of the upper class of being "a doer of evil, and corrupter of the youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the state, and has other new divinities of his own" (Plato, Apology). Ultimately, Socrates' defense led to his death, by his own hand, and the….

Socrates argues that the accusation is absurd, as the accusation implies that he is solely responsible for the state of the youth. Socrates uses the allegory of a horse trainer to explain that he is a trainer, rather than corruptor, of the youth (Cavalier, "Ancient Philosophy").
Socrates' second argument in his defense is that, had harmed the youth, the philosophy that evil begets evil would dictate that the youth would harm him in turn. Being a believer in this philosophy, Socrates would be harming himself knowingly by harming the youth.

egarding the charge of impiety, Socrates argues that he is in fact a guardian of the piety of the City. He has devoted his life to understanding divinity and in service of the gods. However, being disturbed by hearing the truth from Socrates, those indicted by his very piety accused him of impiety.

All of the accusations against Socrates therefore tend not….

Furthermore, many laypeople can have great stores of knowledge, and may have learned to train horses better than professionals -- and to be better teachers and philosophers, from personal experience. In fact, given that philosophy is the study of life, one could argue that ordinary people are the best teachers of the discipline. This is one of the principles of the democratic Athenian system, that everyday people can govern and teach themselves. Socrates, an advocate of philosophers 'leading' others through teaching and through government leadership in a philosopher-kingdom, stands opposed to such ideals and ideas in his teachings.
Socrates has a strong point, however, when he notes that Meletos has not lived up to Athenian democratic ideals. Rather than trying to teach Socrates the right way of thinking, and engaging in a dialogue with Socrates, Meletos brings a case against Socrates in the law-courts -- simply because he disagrees with….

Socrates
In Plato's Crito, Socrates engages the title character in a dialogue about the nature of law, justice, and ethics. Crito wants to break Socrates out from prison, making various arguments in favor of the escape. For one, Crito tells Socrates that it is not ethical to abandon his children if he can help it. Second, Crito repeatedly refers to his own honor and ego, not wanting to be viewed as having failed his friend. Third, Crito claims that Socrates is popular abroad and that his escape would make others happy. Crito's argument is classically utilitarian in nature. The problem is, Socrates is not a utilitarian. Socrates' position is that justice is unequivocal. He has accepted his fate, and did the moment of the trial. Socrates categorically refuses to escape from prison, because doing so would represent an unjust act. Therefore, Socrates firmly believes that a citizen of the state has….

His humility, focus on love and virtue, and selfless devotion in the face of persecution make him an example of "practicing what you preach" (Woods). He "embraced poverty" and refused to accept money for his "teachings" (Nails). Moreover, Socrates could be considered more "innocent and wide-eyed" than Jesus because he refused to believe that anyone had evil intentions, only that evil actions sprung from ignorance. He also believed that people were born virtuous, and therefore did not worry so much about the upbringing of his own sons.
Socrates had various other unusual beliefs that set him apart, and that he stuck by in deed as well as word. For example, he believed in the superiority of oral communication for accurately conveying information; as a result, he never authored any writings, leaving it to Plato and others to attest to the history of his philosophy. In addition, he was highly eccentric….

His view is Asian in that it mirrors the view that meaning is found by searching within, that imposing a specific doctrine is not the way to find enlightenment, and that a teacher is a guide rather than a figure of authority. Such ideas are expressed in Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, and other Asian philosophical and religious systems. Socrates takes a very self-effacing position in keeping with the way he subordinates himself to the need of society and so does not challenge the death sentence pronounced against him, nor does he escape when he can because he believes more in the right of the social order to exert its authority over him than he does in his personal welfare. The sublimation of the personal in service of the greater good is also an Asian element that Socrates expresses in his own way, and the way his followers argue with….

For instance Plato believed that rulers should only rule based on truth and reason and that the way to best live life itself was also based on truth and reason. This is something I agree with very strongly. When it comes to the Iraq war, for example, I feel that America's current leaders decided to start the war based not on truthfulness and reason, but for baser motives, such as coercion and a desire to expand their geographical and financial power. I strongly disagree with the war and neither Socrates nor Plato would have felt the war was justified, based on their ideas of truth, reason, and (for Plato) virtue. Plato believed that truth and reason led to virtue, and that therefore people who lived good lives were truthful, reasonable and virtuous. Like Plato, I agree that living a good life must be based on a foundation of truthfulness,….

Socrates and the Apology
One of the main charges against Socrates revolved around the fact that he was a natural philosopher. This was so problematic as it was in opposition with the views set forth by this early society: these views believed that the society was created via the gods and a great many narratives were developed around the idea of the gods, and what they were capable of and how they impacted the natural world and how it was viewed. Philosophy, particularly Socrates' variety of natural philosophy, was viewed as being in direct opposition to these traditional viewpoints. Another charge against Socrates was one which aligned him with the Sophists. The sophists were a group of public speakers who had uncovered certain methods of persuading others that permitted them to adopt a particular viewpoint even if that viewpoint was not the best or truest one. These individuals travelled, often helping….

To wit, in Socrates' day, there were no official government prosecutors (commonly referred to in modern America as "District Attorneys"); in effect, any citizen could bring an indictment against any other citizen, and call for a trial. And that's basically what happened to Socrates.
Here in America, in 2006, notwithstanding what Vice President Cheney said, President George . Bush stated, "I will never question the patriotism of somebody who disagrees with me." Bush was responding to a reporter's question on August 21; Bush was asked if he believed, according to http://mediamatters.org, that the "Democrats advocating for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq 'embolden Al Qaeda types' as...Cheney similarly stated. Bush's answer was, "I will never question the patriotism of somebody who disagrees with me... [although] leaving [Iraq] before the job would be done would be to send a signal to our troops that the sacrifices they made were not worth it...this has….

Plato, The Apology of Socrates
The charges against Socrates, as given in Plato's Apology, are twofold. This is how Socrates himself phrases it:

And now I will try to defend myself against them: these new accusers must also have their affidavit read. What do they say? Something of this sort: - That Socrates is a doer of evil, and corrupter of the youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the state, and has other new divinities of his own. (Plato 2009).

In other words, the first charge is that Socrates has corrupted the youth of Athens, and the second charge is that of impiety towards the official gods of Athens. Socrates in his defense begins by cross-examining his accuser, Meletus. On the first charge he asks whether Meletus thinks his corruption of young minds was intentional: when Meletus says it was, Socrates notes that Meletus has never privately said this….