The Trial Of Socrates

The ancient Polis of Athens was the fount head of philosophy and democratic ideals in the ancient world. Since it’s very beginning the Hellenistic world saw the development of a radical and unconventional art and way of thinking and appreciation of wisdom. This art of thinking and achieving wisdom is Philosophy. Philosophy comes from the Greek word of Philosophia which literally translates to the love of wisdom. In the ancient Hellenistic world especially in mainland Greece on the Attica peninsula. Here the city of Athens grew into the cosmopolitan city of the ancient world. It was here that many of the ancient world’s greatest thinkers challenge that ingrained understanding of the world. Two of these thinkers have gone down in history as …show more content…
In Plato’s apology he lays out all of the charges that Socrates faced. These charges included corrupting the children of Athens, impiety to the Gods and Goddesses of the City. Socrates also faced the charge of teaching things and not taking a fee unlike that sophists and teaching students about things above in the sky and below the earth. These things were considered socially and morally wrong in the city of Athens at the time. Because of this the city placed Socrates’ on trial for his life. Since Athens was a democracy during the period it was custom that those placed on trial would face a trial of their peers. Much like our modern criminal court system, there was a prosecutor who brought up the charges, a defendant, and a jury of five hundred and one in which you needed thirty over half to acquit the defendant. This did not happen in the case of Socrates even though the verdict was extremely close, Socrates lost by only the thirty …show more content…
Because he was encouraging children to look beyond the traditional thoughts of their parents and society. He was accused of corrupting the youth. Within The Apology Socrates and Meletus get into a very heated debate over this charge. This can be seen lines 23(d)-26(b) where there is a back and forth dialogue between the two. This leads to Socrates stating that if he is corrupting the youth, then he is corrupting them involuntarily. This is present in his last statement of line 25(e) “Of this I am not convinced by you, Meletus, nor, do I suppose, is any other human being. But either I do not corrupt, or if I do corrupt, I do it involuntarily, so in both cases what you say is false.” The second major charge of impiety and blasphemy is seen throughout this work but in sections 32 and 36 he addresses this and saying that is no surprise that he being charged with impiety and several times in this work Socrates does swear to Zeus king of the Gods. This is blasphemy in ancient Hellenic culture. Because of how he defends himself it comes across as if Socrates is not really attempting to defend his life. However, he is but in his own way as a philosopher and thinker. It is when we dig deeper into the readings that we see the truth of the matter. That Socrates responds he will continue to act the way he does and will continue to teach and question