Apology

Born in 470 BCE, Socrates was an Athenian philosopher who, despite having left behind no writings of his own, is considered one of the earliest and most important figures in Western philosophy. His life and ideas were immortalized in numerous secondary accounts, particularly those written by his star pupil Plato and the contemporary historian Xenophon. In what is known as “the Socratic problem,” scholars struggle to construct a coherent and historically accurate image of Socrates’s life, philosophy, and personality. For example, there is a scholarly consensus that in his later dialogues, Plato used Socrates as a fictional vehicle conveying Plato’s own views. Apology, however, which recreates Socrates’s 399 BCE trial for impiety and corrupting the youth, is considered one of Plato’s more valuable and reliable accounts. This is because the trial was a historical event substantiated by other accounts by Xenophon and the rhetorician Polycrates. Moreover, as scholar and translator G.M.A. Grube writes in a foreword to Apology, “[M]any Athenians would remember [Socrates’s] actual speech, and it would be a poor way to vindicate the Master, which is the obvious intent, to put a completely different speech into his mouth” (21).

In his defense speech Socrates comes off as alternatively humble and arrogant; one moment he characterizes his own wisdom as “worthless,” and the next he claims he is anointed by the gods to expose the ignorance of the Athenian elite. He clearly savors engaging in a rhetorical jousting match against Meletus, whom Socrates easily manipulates into contradicting himself. In doing so, he uses what is now known as the Socratic method, by which underlying assumptions and fallacies are exposed through the process of interrogation. Socrates also uses what scholars now refer to as Socratic irony, pretending to be ignorant to draw out the ignorance of others. He expresses apathy—feigned or otherwise—in the face of death to emphasize how the jury only does itself wrong by condemning Socrates and depriving Athens of such a helpful “gadfly.”

If there is a defining trait that shines through Socrates’s layers of irony and rhetoric, it is his appreciation of integrity above all else, in both himself and others. Having received his death sentence, he makes it clear he prefers death to exile or abandonment of the practice of philosophy. Shortly after his sentence, Socrates administered his own execution by drinking poisonous hemlock.