Philosophy Assignment Ð'- the Last Days of Socrates

Philosophy Assignment Ð'- The Last Days of Socrates

Question/Answer Essay

In Plato's apology: The trial of Socrates, Socrates is convicted by a great and many crimes. Through these blames Socrates comes up with different ways of countering the assumptions cast upon in his defense. In turn, through his defense Socrates makes some very strong points that revolve around the aspect of truth, re-phrasing questions and outlining the respect people should give to one another. Through this, Socrates makes his point clearer, and shares his wisdom to the people my making it clear that everyone has been misunderstood. Firstly, Socrates is accused of being the wisest man in all of Greece; he has referred to as being "eloquent". Socrates is accused of being a Ð''villainous misleader of youth' and, Socrates is put to blame by living an ashamed life full of misleading and false truths.

Socrates is accused of being the wisest man in all of Greece, and is refereed to as someone who is "eloquent" perhaps even a Sophist. In his defense Socrates states that if he can find a man wiser than him, then he could refute this to the oracle. However, Socrates confronts a man who has a reputation of wisdom and through observation Socrates realizes that this man is not wise and only believes himself to be. Therefore, Socrates states that this man of wisdom is in fact a liar and to Socrates; he neither knows nor thinks that he knows the fact of being the wisest. Therefore, it is not Socrates who makes himself out to be the wisest but puts into perspective on why Socrates should be blamed for this incident, when there are people out their who believe that they are the wisest while Socrates doesn't say anything like this at all.

Socrates is accused of misleading the youth, and perhaps under developed minds however, in his defense he basically states that if someone asked you what I have said or done wrong that, that person would be silenced. Furthermore, Socrates states that the accusing in an attempt to protect their pretence will repeat the ready-made charges to refresh the minds of the people and making the worst appear to be the better cause. Which in turn, covers up the truth of the situation.

Someone who states that he should be ashamed of a life he is leading because it is going to bring him to an untimely end further accuses Socrates. In response, Socrates states that man is good for absolutely nothing in life except for the choices that they make, good or bad. In essence, Socrates is trying to say that the consequences of making the right choice has led him to a life that will end untimely and for this he is not ashamed.

The trial of Socrates is symbolic for a battle between good and evil, between the accused and the accusing. Socrates in essence, believes in god and is too wise for his own good. Throughout whole trial he spoke nothing but the truth however, because of the greed and jealousy of men they convicted him other wise simply because of their own intentions. Furthermore, searching for the truth couldn't be possible because of the reality of the situation: Socrates was considered the wisest man, people in an act of evil wanted to confront and destroy him and in essence, this couldn't be possible because in fact Socrates was the wisest man and was unknowing of it. This in reality represents the irony in the situation because Socrates doesn't consider himself to be the wisest man in Greece, but he is. In reality Socrates only escape from death was to lie and he didn't feel obliged to do so. In fact the truth was there the whole time and it was up to the people to pry through the illusion of this situation and understand what Socrates was saying. This represents the high cost of searching out the truth in this case, which was the causing of Socrates'

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