Sean Meslar Post 4 Outside Readings

The last in my series of posts focusing on Platonic dialogues will focus on the Apology. Unlike most of the dialogues, the Apology does not have a central question or issue, it is merely an attempt to convey the events leading up to Socrates's conviction. Socrates is tried with two charges, corrupting the youth and impiety. In almost comedic fashion, Socrates employs his classic reductio ad absurdum argument structure to show that the charges against him are spiteful and short-sighted. Nevertheless, Socrates, by nature of his overbearing arrogance, convinces the Athenian jury to sentence him to death. Among the leading contributing factors to his execution is Socrates's lengthy attempt to demonstrate that he is the wisest of all men because he "knows that he knows nothing." In an attempt to find someone in possession of true knowledge, Socrates essentially sealed his fate by heckling every social class of Athens to the point of righteous annoyance; a fate hinted at in an earlier chronological dialogue, the Meno, when one of his three future accusers warns that his constant bothering of people may get him in trouble. Upon his sentencing, Socrates warns that Athens has dealt itself a far greater punishment than it has to Socrates, because his role as intellectual gadfly spurs the citizenry to greater heights. The ridiculous manner in which Socrates responds to this literally life and death matter (a description can't really do the dialogue full justice; it's a must read) leave the reader to wonder whether Socrates wanted to die. We see later in the Crito that Socrates refuses to escape his punishment and imprisonment despite a relative assurance of his safety. The conviction with which Socrates held to his beliefs, even in the face of death, is something I think everyone could stand to learn from, even if we do so in a slightly less self-destructive manner.