Apology: Is Socrates Guilty Or Innocent?

An Tran
Professor Nathan Poage
PHIL 1301
July 15, 2013
Apology: Is Socrates Guilty or Innocent? The Apology is Plato’s accurate depiction of the Socrates’ own defense at the trial provoked by Meletus. However, besides current accusers, Socrates has to speak out to defense against former accusers who have created prejudices of him for long time. Former accusers prosecute Socrates for “studying things in the sky and below the earth” and “[making] the worse into the stronger argument” (Plato 18b-c). Moreover, Meletus, who is one of recent accusers, charges Socrates of “[corrupting] the young and not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in new spiritual things” (Plato 24c). The dialogue between Socrates and the jury as well
The accusers claim that Socrates is one of many Sophists who are “very good speakers. Indeed, they [have] reputations for being able to convince a crowd that up [is] down, that day [is] night, that the wrong answer could be the right answer, that good [is] bad and bad is good, even that injustice is justice and justice would be made to appear as injustice” (Pecorino). Furthermore, Sophists are paid for delivering speech and only care about winning debates and lawsuits more than anything else. Thus, most of them are feared and hated by Athenian people. Nevertheless, Socrates distinguish himself from Sophists by giving evidence that he “live[s]in great poverty because of [his] service to the god” (Plato 23b). While Sophists such as Gorgias of Leontini, Producs of Ceos, and Hippias of Elis charge fee for their services, Socrates never asks or receive money from anyone whom he approaches and asks questions regarding to wisdom and virtue. Unlike Sophists who are wealth and famous, Socrates is so poor because of his free service. In addition, Socrates’ intention is to help other people understand virtue and become wiser rather than teaching them how to become good speakers as Sophists do. Therefore, Socrates is not guilty of “[making] the worse into the stronger argument” (Plato
Socrates teaches his young men be wiser and think about themselves. This annoys the Athenian government and officials because they think those young could break the laws and create rumor among the society. Hence, Meletus prosecutes Socrates for teaching the young to go against the government and emphasizes that all the Athenians make the young become better except Socrates (Plato 25b). In order to reverse that accusation, Socrates uses example of horse breeders who are trained and have experience to take care of horses and make them better while the majority lacking of skills and knowledge cannot. As a result, it is impossible for all the Athenians to know what benefits the young. Only Socrates who has knowledge and skills is able to teach the best for the young. Moreover, Socrates indicates that no one wants to harm oneself; neither does Socrates. If he intentionally corrupts the young, he is putting himself at risk because “the wicked people do some harm to their closest neighbors while good people do them good” (Plato 25e). Therefore, it is impossible for Socrates to teach the young in the way to harm him. After Socrates disproves Metelus’ charge, he criticizes Metelus’ prosecuting procedure. If Socrates harms the young unintentionally, Metelus has to “get hold of [Socrates] privately, instruct and exhort [Socrates]” (Plato 26). In contrast, Meletus brings Socrates