Wisdom, Truth And Virtue In Plato's Apology '

Plato’s Apology is the retelling of Socrates’ trial and his ultimate death. In the Apology, Socrates argues and defends himself against the false charges of: corrupting the minds of the young and not believing in the gods recognized by the state. Socrates was judged by Meletus, Anitus, and Lycon; Meletus of which he discussed with the most. How these charges came about, were merely prejudices and assumptions by the people of Athens that accumulated over the years. It all started when a Delphic oracle proclaimed that Socrates was the wisest of them all. Because Socrates questioned most things and thought he was actually “ignorant”, he decided to put this proclamation to the test and find someone wiser. Socrates questioned numerous …show more content…
Throughout this dialogue it is evident that Socrates uses ethical, logical, and emotional appeals to “persuade” the jury. The accusers warn the jury that they should not be moved by Socrates eloquent speech, and Socrates admits that he is eloquent but “different a way from theirs.” I admire how Socrates uses pathos by telling the crowd that his way off rhetoric and speaking isn’t to sugarcoat and dress up his words – unlike the accusers – but to modestly defend his points. Instead of denying his very “dressed up speech” he embraced it and tried to turn it into something positive, sort of humbling himself before the crowd. Another thing he does is bring up older accusations that the accusers themselves never even mentioned. If applied to a modern court case, this strategic plan would not have helped him at all. On the other hand, my understanding of why he did that would be to change those negative prejudices against him and change them into positive ones without actually confirming whether those accusations were real or false. Moving on to his current accusations, Socrates picks up dialogue when Meletus accuses him of corrupting the Youth. Socrates