Plato's the Apology

Résumé du document

In 399 BCE, Socrates had to stand trial in Athens. He faced five hundred judges to whom he presented his defense (απολογία). His accusers, three citizens led by Meletus, charged him with disregarding the gods of the city and corrupting the youth. But Socrates felt the need to answer other implicit charges from numerous earlier accusers like the author Aristophanes who, in his Clouds, depicted him as "a wise man, a student of all things in the sky and below the earth, who makes the worse argument the stronger" (Apology, 18b). Plato, one of Socrates' followers,
wrote an account of this trial between 5 and 10 years later.

Historiography teaches us that even though it is Plato who wrote the Apology his own philosophical thoughts were not as present in it as in others of his later works. Therefore the account he makes of Socrates' plea must be fairly accurate. However, this text is much more than the minutes of Socrates' trial; in fact it represents a manifesto in which Socrates operates a significant shift in the history of thought, distinguishing himself from all the thinkers who preceded him by inquiring into the very definition of philosophy (υιλοσουία). By first explaining how different he is from these early thinkers, he displays a new understanding of knowledge and wisdom before finally explaining how his commitment to philosophy has far-reaching consequences.

Extraits

[...] As he says, is wrong ( ) if [they] think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his actions, whether what he does is right or wrong, whether he is acting like a good or a bad (Ap., 28b). It then follows a certain number of conclusions. No truly good man can go into politics without encroaching on his ideal of justice: man will survive who genuinely opposes [the men of Athens] or any other crowd and prevents the occurrence of many unjust and illegal happenings in the city. [...]

[...] It turns out that these people are no wiser than Socrates. As he says, it is likely than neither of [them] knows anything worthwhile, but [the men reputed to be wise] think [they] know something when [they] do not, whereas when [Socrates doesn't] know, neither [does he] think know[s]; so [he is] likely to be wiser than [them] by a small extent, that [he doesn't] think he know[s] what [he doesn't] know. (Ap., 21d) Thus, wisdom is defined as the awareness one has of his or her own knowledge. [...]

[...] Although he says that doesn't] speak in contempt of such knowledge, if someone is wise in these things, ( ) [he has] no part in it and on this point call[s] upon the majority of [the judges] as witnesses” (Ap., 19c). Indeed, one of the things Socrates is credited with is the transfer from the study of nature to the study of man. Knowing when a solar eclipse should occur is not as important to him as knowing how a virtuous human being should act. By thinking so, he leaves the study of nature (υύσις) to inquire into that of ethics (ηθική). The second group of people he tries to make clear he has no connection with are the sophists. [...]

[...] Plato shows us that Socrates had to die in order for philosophy to live. If Socrates claimed he didn't have any students, he certainly had followers for whom he set an example. If people nowadays still read Plato's the Apology and find in it relevant questions to ask themselves, it is because Socrates is the first true philosopher. He started a tradition of self-examination, of inquiry into one's purposes in life, of standards of right and wrong. In a word, he invented philosophy. [...]

[...] That is why he refuses to propose a reasonable alternative penalty to death, thus condemning himself for good. For him, stopping to practice philosophy as the gods want him to do would be a sin. He prefers to stick to what he thinks is just rather than submit his reason to the passions (the fear of death). Moreover, to fear death ( ) is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. [...]