THE APOLOGY OF

SOCRATES
Who was Socrates?

• Aristophanes’ Socrates:
In all of his plays, Socrates is portrayed as a character who makes fun
of the traditional gods of Athens, and uses mind games and dishonest
speech techniques to always win an argument. But it is Socrates who
ultimately ends up being ridiculed.
• Xenophon’s Socrates:
The historian Xenophon depicts Socrates as practical and helpful
advisor. In his encounter with Socrates, he offered Xenophon very
helpful advise on the problems he was experiencing, although it was a
brief encounter.
• Plato’s Socrates:
The canon of the history of philosophy agreed that Plato’s Socrates is
the Socrates, for the sake of the arguments and progress in philosophy.
However it is very important to acknowledge that Plato depicts the
ideal Socrates, not the historical Socrates. So the question still remains:
Where does Socrates end and where does Plato begin? Can we ever
separate these two figures apart from each other?
In order to understand the Apology, first we
have to understand the cultural, political and
social backdrop of the trial of Socrates.

How did Athens, the birth place of Western

philosophy and bedrock of the idea of
democracy, end up killing the most well-known
philosopher of the era?
 Athenian Democracy
• “Democracy” à demos + kratos
• Direct democracy vs. Representative democracy
- In the representative democracy, we elect the leaders who’ll
make laws and decisions on our behalf.
- Direct democracy in Ancient Athens encourages a wide
participation of citizens in governing the city-state. These
citizens are randomly chosen from a pool of volunteers.
• General Assembly (6000 ppl) + Governing Council to set
the agenda, evaluate proposals, pass a law (500 ppl) +
Jurors to deal with legal issues.
• Slaves, women, foreigners are not granted citizenship. And
when we exclude the people too young to serve, we are left
with the 15-20% of the overall population.
• The two indispensable political techniques of
the Athenian democracy:
Persuasion and Rhetoric

“How to make a strong case so that you can

convince as many people as possible to agree
with you”
 The Sophists
• The sophists are professional traveling teachers who work as
freelance tutors in Athens and other major Greek cities in the 5th
century B.C.
• They offer an education on how to influence others, particularly
citizens in political functions, through persuasion with a mastery of
rhetoric.
• They are famous for teaching their students how to win debates,
which leads to obtaining and keeping political power by using
techniques of discourse.
• They have no genuine interest in overarching truths about humanity,
because they don’t believe in such truths.
• The power of the Sophists comes from the way they used the
difference between “truth” and “discourse.”
• Their argument may be wrong (they’re not concerned with the truth
of the content) but it looks correct (thanks to their skill in persuasion
and rhetoric)
 The Sophistic Speech:
It gets legitimacy from “appearing” true, but not
necessarily “being” true.

• The sophists declare that what determines the value of a

speech is not the criterion of truth but the criterion of
agreement. So they get as many people as possible to agree
on an opinion that is well-decorated to look true.

• Once this change of criterion has been settled, there is

nothing beyond the power of the orator.
• Political power is thus obtained by the Sophists or by the
noble men trained by the Sophists.
• They made speeches that pleased the public, instead of
telling them the truths they might not like about the welfare
of the society.
 Socrates
vs.
The Sophists

• Instead of “teaching”, Socrates talks to people in

a rational dialogue.
• The purpose of these dialogues is to search for a
true definition of some important terms, such as
courage, justice, piety, happiness, virtue.
• Knowledge requires a constant examination of
our opinions in order to locate the errors in them.
“Know thyself”

The inscription on the

temple of Delphi.
It is a temple dedicated to
Apollo, the Greek god of
wisdom.
 Socrates
and
the human wisdom
• Socrates has devoted his life to understanding
the meaning of this message: what does it
mean to know oneself?
• He begins his inquiry by going around the
people of Athens, engaging in conversations
with them, seeking out what it means to know
oneself.
• Philosophy originates in this question.
 “Socrates is the wisest man.”

• The oracle of the Delphi had a prophecy:

“There is no wiser man than Socrates.”

Socrates is puzzled: “What is the god saying, and

what riddle is he propounding?”

He is aware that he is not the wisest, but he cannot

reject the words of god either. So he decides to
investigate the prophecy.
He starts questioning the people who are supposed
to be “wise.”
• He questions the politicians, poets and the
craftsmen. Among them are the Sophists as well.
• What he realizes in these dialogues is that the
people who are supposed to be wise, are in fact not
wise at all.
• His discovery is that these people have knowledge
only of a particular field. But it is not “wisdom.”
So we cannot really call these people “wise.”
• They simply are not aware of their ignorance. They
think they know, but they don’t.
• They don’t know what they think they know.
• By revealing that these people don’t know
what they think they know, Socrates also
reveals that they even don’t know themselves.
• After countless philosophical dialogues with
the people of Athens, Socrates concludes:
“the only thing I know is that I don’t know.”
This is how he comes to interpret the oracle’s
message:
True wisdom consists of the acknowledgment of
the ignorance intrinsic to the human nature.
• Realizing this ignorance is the pre-condition of the
Socratic speech.
• True examination of the self, truth or knowledge
can only begin after we are awaken to the fact that
we are limited.
• It is an ignorance that constitutes the core of the
relationship we have with everything else. It is not
an ignorance with regard to this or that.
• Know thyself à Know your limitations. Know
your ignorance.
• This is the essence of true human wisdom.
How will we find out about our limitations?
How will we know ourselves?

Through the Socratic dialogue, through the activity of

philosophy.

• Wisdom entails a willingness to give up everything you

think you know: your beliefs, your assumptions, your
opinions, you prejudices that you cling to.
• Once you can let go of these things that cloud your
thinking, you can begin to think for yourself in order to
find out clearer definitions of things.
 The Socratic dialogue:
• An active method of conversation.
• It consists of a constant re-examination of assumptions.
• It is a practice of reasoning: what do you really know?
(the things you can account for) and what do you think
you know but actually don’t know (everything that is
pre-conceived without questioning à usually we can’t
properly reason for them)
• Its questions: What is virtue, piety, happiness, justice,
holy?
• It requires courage: you should be ready to give up your
assumptions, and face your own ignorance in order to
be able to think clearly.
 Example: from Euthyphro
“What is holy?”
Socrates: What is holy?
Euthyphro: That which is loved by gods.
S: Do they all love the same things? Or are some things loved by
only some of the gods and other things by other gods?
E: Gods love just human actions.
S: Are just actions loved because they are holy or are they holy
because they are loved?
E: Service to gods is what is holy.
S: What is service?
E: To please the gods by prayers and sacrifices.
S: Is it possible to please the gods through earthly materials which are
given by the gods themselves? Isn’t prayer a way of asking for
something from gods? How could these be pleasing the gods?