Philosophy 5: Critical Thinking and Composition

Pierce College

Department of History, Philosophy, & Sociology

Lecture Notes for excerpts from Plato's "Apology" (from the beginning, "How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell," up until the point where Socrates says, "Let thirty minae be the penalty; for which sum they will be ample security to you")

Plato's Apology

Truth

Socrates, in his defense against the charges, purports to speak the truth

Old Reputation

Socrates was known (amongst the Athenians) as one who

1) makes (reckless) speculations about the heavens and earth,

2) makes "the worse appear the better cause," and

3) teaches such things to others

Socrates' Defense

"the simple truth is, O Athenians, [is] that I have nothing to do with physical speculations"

Socrates' Reputation as a Sophist

Socrates has an inaccurate reputation as being a Sophist that he also seeks to disprove

A sophist is one who charges money to teach people how to make "the worse appear the better cause"

"As little foundation is there for the report that I am a teacher, and take money; this accusation has no more truth in it than the other"

Human Instruction

Beyond denying that he is a sophist, Socrates denies that teaching itself exists

Instructing humans, he says, would be an honorable thing–if it was even possible

Wise

Socrates states:

"this reputation of mine has come of a certain sort of wisdom which I possess"

This is not the "superhuman wisdom" claimed to be had by the sophists

The God of Delphi

Socrates appeals to a god as a witness

"None Wiser"

Socrates gives the following account: "Chaerephon, as you know, was very impetuous in all his doings, and he went to Delphi and boldly asked ... the oracle to tell him whether anyone was wiser than I was, and the Pythian prophetess answered, that there was no man wiser"

Socrates' Response

Yet Socrates knows that he has "no wisdom, small or great"

Was the god's proclamation a riddle?

It could not have been a lie as gods don't do that

Experiment, Tests, and Socratic Inquiry

To discern the nature of the god's proclamation, Socrates tested it

"I reflected that if I could only find a man wiser than myself, then I might go to the god with a refutation in my hand"

"I should say to him, 'Here is a man who is wiser than I am; but you said that I was the wisest'"

Hence we have Socrates' procedure of inquiry, of testing claims

Testing a Politician

E.g.: "When I began to talk with him, I could not help thinking that he was not really wise, although he was thought wise by many, and still wiser by himself; and thereupon I tried to explain to him that he thought himself wise, but was not really wise; and the consequence was that he hated me, and his enmity was shared by several who were present and heard me"

Wisdom

As a result of examining the politician Socrates concludes:

"I am better off than he is,–for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I neither know nor think that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the advantage of him."

This Can't End Well

"the result of my mission was just this: I found that the men most in repute [those engaged in political actives, which surely includes members of his audience] were all but the most foolish; and that others less esteemed were really wiser and better"

Wisdom vs. Pretense to Knowledge

Socrates asserts that he'd gladly not have the knowledge they have if it includes having their ignorance too

Hence Socrates' Negative Reputation

Such inquiry proved dangerous for Socrates, earning him enemies

The Worth of Human Wisdom / The Oracle Interpreted

Folks call Socrates wise as they take Socrates to have the wisdom he seeks in others

But, "God only is wise," Socrates argues

And when the god speaks of Socrates as wise, he only shows that "the wisdom of men is worth little or nothing"

When the god speaks of Socrates as wise, he is only using Socrates as an example of human wisdom, and how little knowledge that wisdom includes

Here's how Socrates interprets the god's proclamation: "He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing"

Socrates' Days

And it is in this way that Socrates busies himself, leaving him no time for any type of public office–or for earning money

Teaching? The sons of the rich nevertheless willingly follow Socrates about

They enjoy the way in which Socrates exposes those who claim to have knowledge

Those sons enjoy the way in which the examined become angry with Socrates instead of themselves

The anger of the examined takes the form of the repeating "the ready-made charges which are used against all philosophers"

And Meletus represents the anger of the examined with his charges:

Contemporary Charges According to Meletus, Socrates

1) "is a doer of evil"

2) "corrupts the youth"

3) "does not believe in the gods of the state"

4) "has other new divinities of his own"

Yet Socrates recognizes that he will not likely be able to sway the Athenian rabble

He predicts that his destruction will come from "the envy and detraction of the world"

But if he knows he's to die, shouldn't he be ashamed at not trying to save himself?

Socrates replies: "a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong–acting the part of a good man or of a bad"

On the Fear of Death

To be afraid of death is to claim knowledge about it

But about what happens after death, or even during death, we know nothing

The fear of death is thus a pretense to wisdom, but not itself wise

Disobedience

While Socrates admits that he knows very little, he does know that disobedience to the state is evil, but that disobedience to a god is a greater evil

There is a possible good to obeying the state, but a certain evil to disobeying a god, and Socrates states that he "will never fear or avoid a possible good rather than a certain evil"

The Soul 's Primacy

Socrates considers a scenario where he is let off on the condition that he cease his enquiries

Socrates says he reports to gods over men, and that he would/will continue to chastise, via examination, his fellow Athenians for improperly valuing money, honor, and reputation over wisdom and truth

Socrates on the Fear of Death

"When I do not know whether death is a good or an evil, why should I propose a penalty which would certainly be an evil?"

Why not Exile?

Socrates will not propose that he is put in exile, as this would mean that he disobeys the god

"if I tell you that to do as you say would be a disobedience to the God, and therefore that I cannot hold my tongue, you will not believe that I am serious; and if I say again that daily to discourse about virtue, and of those other things about which you hear me examining myself and others, is the greatest good of man, and that the unexamined life is not worth living, you are still less likely to believe me" (emphasis mine)