Socrates Apology Analysis

Socrates is convicted of corrupting the young and not believing in the gods of the city. During his trials, his “Apology,” a transliteration of the Greek word apologia, meaning defense consists of 3 parts. The first part would be his main speech, followed by his counter-assessment and finally his last words to the jury. Throughout the apology, Socrates explains how he benefits the citizens of Athens and helps them achieve happiness. The philosophy behind being happy has much more story and depth than just the positive feeling you get. Happiness defined by Socrates is the best possible state or condition of all human being. The state of happiness, once achieved cannot be taken away.
A clear analysis of how Socrates benefits the city of Athens is explained in the Apology. He explicitly does this through the questioning of one’s ignorance though normal conversations he has with individuals on the streets. When Socrates does this, he helps the citizens gain knowledge about their ignorance and allows them to become closer to happiness. He wishes for people to take care of their souls and through conversations he hopes to benefit them in helping them to be virtuous. Within Socrates’s eyes, the connection that happiness and virtue have …show more content…
Socrates presents in the Meno “…I am so far from knowing whether virtue can be taught or not that I do not even have any knowledge of what virtue itself is”(71A). However Socrates uses this approach to allow each individual to figure out what virtue is, instead of him giving his own definition of virtue. The main contradiction throughout Plato’s text tells that virtue is knowledge, Socrates is virtuous, but Socrates has no knowledge. There is no exact answer to this puzzle, but relating this back to the Apology, Socrates does this in order to help the people he talks to reach a sense of epiphany about what is virtue or