An Outline of "The Apology" by Plato Along With Discussion Questions

Stephen Alexander Beach 

An emerging overall theme from a close reading of the text seems to me to be that of the birthing of the human conscience in a more conscious and explicit manner. Certainly the conscience has always played a part of human societies, but here I think Socrates is birthing conscience out as a specific idea. Think about it, he mentions how his divine sign tells him what not to do, that he has a calling from god to pursue a mission based in truth, that no wicked man can harm this interior self of his, that he is not afraid of death because he knows he is virtuous, and that wisdom is the person's pursuit of virtue through examining one's life and become awake to the higher realities. In so many ways all of these swirl around this idea of conscience, though that word is never used. It also brings up the question, if it is Socrates who examine Athens and puts them to the test, who is it that stands as the examiner to Socrates? It can only be the voice of god, the calling of the higher realities manifest through Socrates' conscience that calls him to task. Conscience is the voice of god. It is the voice of the highest truth. It is our personal examiner. 

I Am Not Eloquent 

The Apology begins before the Athenian court system where Socrates makes the preliminary statement that he is not going to speak in eloquent manners, he will not prepare a speech ahead of time, but rather he will speak as he always speak, and he will speak only that which is true and just. "...give your attention to this, whether I speak what is just or not; for this is the virtue of a judge, but of an orator to speak the truth." 1 (We also get the detail that he is over 70 years old.)

My First Accusers

Socrates has had accusers for many years, and the worst ones are not even the ones bringing him up on trial right now. He has been called a sophist, that since he searches into the biggest questions he does not believe in the gods, and that he tells these things to the youth, corrupting them. These rumors have spread among so many people that there's not particular people who he can point out anymore, nevertheless, he is going to defend himself. "'Socrates acts wickedly, and is criminally curious in searching into things under the earth, and in the heavens, and in making the worse appear the better cause, and in teaching these same things to others.'" 2 He has also never taken money for his speaking or teaching, though he says that if someone can do it well it is not wrong to take money. 

Why I Am Called Wise

Socrates is now going to explain where he got his reputation for wisdom from, though it is only a human wisdom. Socrates' friend from youth, Chaerepho, had taken a trip to the Oracle of Delphi and asker her if there was anyone wiser than Socrates. She replied that there was no one wiser. 

The Origin of My Method

When Socrates heard this he was confused because he did not consider himself wise at all. At the same time, Apollo could not be lying. So Socrates decided that to prove the oracle wrong he was going to seek out the people known for their wisdom and there see that they possessed a wisdom greater than he. 

And so first he sought out a famous politician to converse with. In talking, Socrates discovered that the man thought he was wise and held wise opinions, but that was not the case. And when Socrates pointed this out, the man became angry at him. And so Socrates went away thinking that maybe he was slightly wiser than this man because he would at least admit that he knew nothing, while this man would not admit it. "I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know." Socrates approached another politician, and the outcome was the same. Of course this made him disliked and hated by those in power given he was exposing their ignorance. "...I must tell you the truth, I came to some such conclusion as this: those who bore the highest reputation appeared to me to be most deficient ... and others who were considered inferior more nearly approaching to the possession of understanding." 

And so next he sought out the poets, as they were often known for their wisdom. Here Socrates was amazed to realize that the poets did not understand the meaning of their work, but rather had composed through gifts of inspiration, not wisdom. And so their hearers who reflected on the lyrics seemed to know more about them than the poets themselves. And yet since the poets were popular people took them to be wise in many areas of life, of which they were clearly not. 

And so then Socrates approached the artisans. It is true, they, like the poets, possessed skills in their art form that Socrates did not possess. But the same pitfall came with that for the artisans as well. Since they were good at their craft they thought that they were wise in other areas and matters, again, which they were not. And so therefore Socrates asks, would it be better to have a knowledge of a practical skill but be ignorant of one's lack of wisdom, or to have skill or wisdom, but at least to be aware that one does not have these things. Socrates says that it is better to have awareness of one's ignorance. 

And so Socrates concludes that Apollo must be saying that wisdom is to know that you know nothing or very little. Socrates then takes it as his mission to bring this truth to every man he meets, especially those who are known for their wisdom, and "take the part of the god" in exposing their hypocrisy. "... human wisdom is worth little or nothing; and it is clear that he did not say this to Socrates, but made use of my name, putting me forward as an example, as if he had said, that man is the wisest among you, who, like Socrates, knows that he is in reality worth nothing with respect to wisdom." He takes this mission so seriously that Socrates leaves his personal cares and life to the side in pursuit of the service of the god. "And, in consequence of this occupation, I have no leisure to attend in any considerable degree to the affairs of the state or my own; but I am in the greatest poverty through my devotion to the service of the god." 

And so this is how people began to calumniate Socrates, claiming he said he was wise. And furthermore, there are many young followers of Socrates who like listening to these people get exposed for their hypocrisy, and so they too begin to question people and take up Socrates' method. This, then, has brought more anger upon Socrates and led to the claim that he has been "corrupting the youth". And since they could not point to anything Socrates had said that was wrong, they resorted to the standard objections against philosophers. "'that he searches into thing in heaven and things under the earth, that he does not believe there are gods, and that he makes the worse appear the better reason.'" And so for a long time people have been angry and calumniating Socrates, thus explaining how these charges came to be known. 

Tell Me Meletus ...

He now will take on these charges head on. First, that he corrupts the youth, second, that he doesn't believe in the city's gods, and third that he introduces new gods. In terms of the youth, Socrates gets Meletus to admit that it is virtue that makes the youth better. Then, following this, he asks him who in the city makes the youth better. Meletus is silent but then says that those who teach the youth about the laws make them better. Socrates then leads him to agree that everyone who participates in the judging, the senate, and the public assemblies (thus basically all of Athens) makes the youth better, but Socrates, the one person, does not. Running with this conclusion, Socrates then applies it to other types of training, such as with horses. He points out that when it comes to training any other creature it is only the skilled trainer, not the average person who can do this. Thus, very few, not the majority can train well. 

Moving on, Socrates then gets him to admit, sheepishly, that people associate with good people that benefit them, not with bad people who harm them. Meletus thinks that Socrates purposefully corrupts the youth, but Socrates points out that if he did this purposefully then he would just be creating his own downfall, as someone would pay him back for doing this. And if he did it without meaning to, he wouldn't be on trial. 

Socrates has continually shown that Meletus never cared about the youth and is accusing him falsely. Meletus cannot even get his own charges straight, for when Socrates asks him to clarify, he cannot. "For I cannot understand whether you say that I teach them to believe that there are certain gods (and in that case I do believe that there are gods, and am not altogether an atheist, nor in this respect to blame), not, however, those which the city believes in, but others; and this it is that you accuse me of, that I introduce others. Or do you say outright that I do not myself believe that there are gods, and that I teach others the same?" Meletus then accuses him of being an atheist, and of calling the sun and moon just physical objects. 

Socrates points out that everyone knows these ideas are from Anaxagoras, and the youth can buy his work for cheap, and so if he passed this off on his own everyone would immediately call him out on it. And so Socrates continues the attack and points out that no one talks about things pertaining to a subject without thinking that subject actually exists. And so why would he talk about daimons, who are sons/types of gods, and yet not believe the higher gods exist from which the daimons came? 

And so Socrates clearly makes the argument that his indictment from Meletus is contradictory and hasn't had much thought put into it. 

I Cannot Abandon My Post

And so Socrates has proven that he will not be condemned via real charges, but it may be the ire of the mob that gets him condemned. Is Socrates ashamed of this? Absolutely not. He clearly says that one should not take worry about the risk of death when considering moral matters. Indeed, if men will stand and face death because of the command of another man, how cannot he stand and face death when Apollo commands him? Why exactly should we fear death? Is this not a false wisdom that assumes it is certain of what death is? "For to fear death, O Athenian! is nothing else than to appear to be wise, without being so; for it is to appear to know what one does not know. For no one knows but that death is the greatest of all good to man; but men fear it, as if they well knew that it is the greatest of evils." 

He goes on to say that he does not know exactly about Hades, but he is confident that disobeying the god is wrong. "I shall never, therefore, fear or shun things which, for aught I know, maybe good, before evils which I know to be evils." "O Athenians! I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you; and so long as I breathe and am able, I shall not cease studying philosophy..." Rather Socrates will continue to question everyone about wisdom and will reproach those who have their values mixed up, and will encourage all to virtue, for this is the greatest of riches. "...I shall not act otherwise, even though I must die many deaths."  

I Am God's Gift to Athens

Here Socrates points out that the god has bound him to the city of Athens to help it, and that if they kill him, they may not be granted another gift like him. They are like a stubborn house, or men who are asleep, and he is the gad-fly rousing them to move and to wake up from their slumber. "... being irritated like drowsy persons who are roused from sleep ... you will pass the rest of your life in sleep ...". And so it is foolish to put him to death because he is actually trying to defend them from themselves, from offending Apollo by rejecting his gift to Athens. This is not to say that Socrates is afraid of what they may do to him, on the contrary, the wicked man cannot truly hurt the righteous one. "... you will not injure me more than yourselves. ... for I do not think that it is possible for a better man to be injured by a worse. He may perhaps have me condemned to death, or banished, or deprived of civil rights; and he or others may perhaps consider these as mighty evils; I, however, do not consider them so, but that it is much more so to do what he is now doing, to endeavor to put a man to death unjustly." [Here, I think, is a beautiful point about the inviolability of conscience. Everyone's conscience is a stronghold where no amount of coercion can destroy, so long as we remain strong. Our bodies can be coerced, but never our conscience.]

To show that he has been god's gift to Athens, Socrates points out that he has never charged anyone money for his teaching and questioning, in fact, he is completely poor. Socrates put aside his own personal affairs to attend to the city and so they should see him more as a father or brother who encourages their loved ones to live by virtue. 

Why I Teach But Do Not Engage in Political Life

Here Socrates explains why he does not engage in politics, and references his "divine sign" warning him against doing it. "... I am moved by a certain divine and spiritual influence ... This began with me from childhood, being a kind of voice which, when present, always diverts me from what I am about to do, but never urges me on." He says that he would have been killed long ago by the mob since he would have stood for the truth and against corruption. "... I do not care for death, if the expression be not too rude, in the smallest degree; but that all my care was to do nothing unjust or unholy." 

Socrates is not duplicitous. He is the same person in public and private, for he has always upheld truth and justice. He never turned anyone away nor charged anyone for his teaching. He never taught special things in private that weren't available to all. Indeed he has not given bad teaching to the youth, for if he did, those youths, having grown up, would have come back to punish him (or one of their family members would), but no one has. They, rather, come to his aid. 

Why I Will Not Beg For Mercy

Socrates points out that in many other trials, even much lesser ones, the defendant will try all types of things to appeal to the emotions of his judges, such as bringing out their children and crying. Socrates will not do this for himself. This would not fit with his philosophy and how he has conducted himself to be so afraid of death. Not only that but it would hurt the reputation of the city. Even so, it shouldn't matter because judges take oaths and should judge based on truth, not on some type of pity or favor. 

A Close Vote

Socrates is condemned, but not by as big of a majority as he expected. If thirty votes had switched sides he would have been acquitted. 

What Do I Deserve?

Does Socrates deserve the death penalty. He points out that he neglected his private life and all the activities he could have been apart of to benefit himself so that he could spend him time making the city better and looking out for the people of the city, encouraging them to virtue. He reminded all of them that before they can serve the city properly they needed to first order their own lives. And thus he should actually be rewarded by them all, giving him a place to live and food to eat because he spends all his time benefitting them. 

What else is he to say? To falsely accept a punishment he doesn't deserve? To become a slave prisoner? To pay a debt though he has no money? To be exiled wherein the same process will repeat itself as did here? Can he just be quiet and disobey Apollo's command? Or should he not pursue virtue and wisdom and life a meaningless life? "... I say that this is the greatest good to man, to discourse daily on virtue, and other things which you have heard me discussing, examining both myself and others, but that a life without investigation is not worth living for ..." 

You Have Condemned Yourselves

Socrates speaks to his condemners and points out that he was going to die soon anyway due to old age, and yet now having condemned him they have exposed the city to ridicule because others will claim that they have put a wise man to death (though Socrates does not admit he is wise). If anyone were to claim that Socrates did not put forth enough arguments to save himself, he denies this. Rather, what should be said is that Socrates was not willing to say anything to save himself. He was not willing to resort to wailing and pulling on the emotions of those listening or subjecting himself to say anything at all to save his life. Socrates is not ruled by a fear of danger or death. "But neither did I then think that I ought, for the sake of avoiding danger, to do anything unworthy of a freeman, nor do I now repent of having so defended myself; but I should much rather choose to die, having defended myself, than to live in that way." 

Socrates points out that if a man has no conscience or morals that he may avoid death by resorting to any means necessary, but one's values are more important than death. More difficult than just avoiding death is avoiding the depravity that comes along with doing anything to save oneself. "But it is not difficult, O Athenians! to escape death; but it is much more difficult to avoid depravity, for it runs swifter than death. ... And now I depart, condemned by you to death; but they condemned by truth, as guilty of iniquity and injustice; and I abide my sentence, and so do they." 

And then Socrates prophecies about the future of his condemners. He says that one cannot get away with ruling by force and silencing their opponents with death. Rather, though they don't want to, they are going to have to give an account of their lives to the younger generation who will take up the mantle against them even more vigorously. Rather than condemning others, one should seek to put himself in check. "... immediately after my death a punishment will overtake you, far more severe, by Zeus! than that which you have inflicted on me. For you have done this, thinking you should be freed from the necessity of giving an account of your lives. The very contrary, however, as I affirm, will happen to you." This is his final word, a condemnation of his accusers. 

Death Is A Blessing

Socrates is not distraught at his condemnation. He even points out that his divine sign, which always tells him when not do something, has not opposed any of this. "... a strange thing has happened. For the wonted prophetic voice of my guardian deity on every former occasion, even in the most trifling affairs, opposed me if I was about to do anything wrong; but now that has befallen me which ye yourselves behold, and which any one would think, and which is supposed to be the extremity of evil; yet neither when I departed from home in the morning did the warning of the god oppose me, nor when I came up here to the place of trial, nor in my address when I was about to say anything; yet on other occasions it has frequently restrained me in the midst of speaking. But now it has never, throughout this proceeding, opposed me, either in what I did or said." 

Then Socrates, very pragmatically, lays out why death can be considered a blessing. There are two options, he says. Either all life and consciousness ends, and it is like the most peaceful sleep of our lives in which there is no memory, or the soul survives and there is a hereafter where he can find and talk with the greatest figures to ever live and he can continue to pursue his quest for wisdom. "But the greatest pleasure would be to spend my time in questioning and examining the people there as I have done those here, and discovering who among them is wise, and who fancies himself to be so, but is not" 

And so, for Socrates, the man who has a good conscience of virtue has no chance of being really hurt by anything, not even death. Rather, it is the wicked man who is hurt by his own crimes, even if his body may be fine. In addition, the gods will see to the future of the just man. "... to a good man nothing is evil, neither while living nor when dead, nor are his concerns neglected by the gods." 

Goodbye

The dialogue concludes in a dramatic manner with Socrates exhorting the judges to do the very thing to his children that he is doing to them, that is, to call them to task regarding virtue and vice. If he sons seems to care for the things of this world to, please, punish them. "Punish my sons when they grow up, O judges! paining them as I have pained you, if they appear to you to care for riches or anything else before virtue; and if they think themselves to be something when they are nothing, reproach them as I have done you, for not attending to what they ought, and for conceiving themselves to be something when they are worth nothing. If ye do this, both I and my sons shall have met with just treatment at your hands." 

The final line is an echo of what Socrates had already said about death being a blessing. "But it is not time to depart - for me to die, for you to live. But which of us is going to a better state is unknown to everyone but God." 

Discussion Questions

1) What is wisdom? Why would this notion of wisdom be tied to the beginnings of the philosophical method? How is this different than the methods of theology? 

2) What does Socrates show about the human temptation to create idols out of successful people? Is this still alive today? 

3) Why do you think Socrates is very weary the majority, whether that is the rule of majority, the mindset of the majority, or the judgments of the majority? Does something happen in the human mind when it participates in common action with a large crowd? At the same time, isn't the majority at the heart of what democracy is?  

4) Is there a fate worse than death? What is it for Socrates? And is it indeed foolish that everyone seems to assume that death is necessarily the greatest evil and a bad thing? How is it that Socrates could call death a blessing? 

5) What do you think that Socrates means when he says that it is not possible for a good man to be hurt by a lesser man, not even by death itself? What is he talking about because he certainly cannot be talking about the body? Likewise, how is it that the wicked man is harmed by his very own actions?

6) Why should one take care of their own lives before attending to the cares of others or of the city? What seems to be the highest pursuit that man should strive for? What does living the examined life look like?  

7) Is it possible for corrupt power/men to get away with their corruption in the long run? Likewise, is it possible for an individual to live successfully by lies? What would this look like? Examples? Does this contradict what Plato puts forth in The Republic regarding the Noble Lie? Can there be large scale lies that are good? 

8) At the end of the day, is the pursuit of truth worth the sacrifice and negative consequences that it might entail to obtain it? 

9) What is Socrates' divine sign? Why do you think it only warns him what not to do? 

10) Why do you think that only a few embrace the total pursuit of truth?