Was Socrates Justified In The Apology

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Arguably the most influential philosopher to emerge from Ancient Greece, Socrates was widely despised throughout his lifetime for his incessant search to find a man with more wisdom than he. Socrates was subjected to trial on the charges of impiety and corruption of the youth and was ultimately deemed guilty by the jury. Plato recounts Socrates’ lengthy speech of defense and his subsequent sentence to execution in his dialogue, The Apology. Regardless of his innocence or guilt, however, the verdict of Socrates’ execution is the most appropriate outcome of the trial. In his plea for acquittal, Socrates unwittingly proposes a more compelling argument in support of his own execution rather than against it. He allots a significant amount of time …show more content…
In addressing the jury, Socrates asserts: “You are wrong, sir, if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his actions, whether what he does is right or wrong, whether he is acting like a good man” (Grube 28b). Men should not be concerned with the prospect of death, he implies; rather, they should opt to devote their lives to truth and excellence (Grube 20b). His lack of fear regarding death emits an air of confidence, enforcing his belief that nothing evil could possibly come to him after death as long as he does what is fair and just while he is still alive. It is very probable, however, that the jury misconstrued Socrates’ confidence as arrogance and therefore felt even more inclined to sentence him to death. Presumably, the majority of jurors have felt wronged by Socrates at one point or another; otherwise, he would not be on trial facing accusations at all. He earned a reputation for invalidating and humiliating those around him by questioning their wit until they begin to contradict themselves. The average people of Athens resent him for his innate gift of human wisdom, especially when he denounces his wisdom as “worthless” (Grube 23b) and speaks of death as if it is not the most daunting facet of human existence. Jealousy certainly plays a role in …show more content…
He depicts this first option as a “dreamless sleep” in which there is no concept of time, but rather death feels like one endless night; the alternative describes the afterlife as an opportunity to meet with the most accomplished men who have ever lived (Grube 40d-41b). In reality, either option is favorable to the situation in which Socrates currently resides, thus justifying execution as Socrates’ ideal course of action. Plainly, he knows for certain that imprisonment would be disagreeable, whereas death has the capacity to be the best thing to ever happen to him. The wisdom he seeks, a “wisdom more than human,” (Grube 20e) conceivably either does not exist or is unattainable in the human universe. Upon dying, however, there is great potential that Socrates will ascend to a place where he will find the wisdom he has been pursuing for the entirety of his human existence. Ironically, he will have fulfilled his life’s purpose in death. For these various reasons, I presume that some if not many of his own supporters voted in favor of his execution. While Socrates never appeals for execution,
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