How Does Socrates Corrupt Youth

In the apology, Socrates arguments against the charges of corruption of the youth was that the youth follow him around when he is speaking and he can not force them to go away. This point makes sense, because Socrates can not force the kids to do anything that they do not want to do. However, I believe that this argument is not strong enough to help clear the charge against him. Then, Socrates asked Meletas that if he really thought about corruption then he must have thought about improvement, because a person can not think about corruption without thinking about improvement. So Socrates asked Meletas multiple questions about who improves the youth and Meletas answered that everyone in Athens improves the youth but Socrates. This argument is …show more content…
Also, the idea that Socrates is the only one in Athens that corrupts the youth is impossible, so that must mean that there are other people that are to be blamed for corrupting the youth. After that argument, Socrates uses a horse analogy, to basically say that most people ruin the children and only a few improve them. I feel like it was smart of Socrates to use an analogy about horses and horse breeders for this situation. The analogy was based on common sense, and undisputed facts so it will be hard for his enemies to say it is a flawed analogy. Also, this defense is a good follow up from his last argument, because both support the same point, which is that he could not be the only person to corrupt the youth in Athens. His next argument for the charge was that if he corrupts the youth then the youth will harm him, because the corrupt will harm others. Since he was not harm, that means that he has not corrupted the youth. To me this argument is week, because if Socrates was really ruining the children, then I do not think the children will harm him. I think the children will see him as the leader or a mentor and will obey his commands rather than harm