1.
Socrates’s
opening remarks concern the fact that he’ll abjure the strong Greek convention
that placed great weight on artful rhetoric. We’re used to hearing speakers
tell us they’ll speak `plain truth’- partly because
this very text has been a major influence our culture. Athenian audiences were not accustomed to this.
2.
The
first set of charges against which Socrates responds are stock associations
with `philosophers’ in general with which Athenians were familiar. Socrates is
at pains to disassociate himself from the stereotype of the `philosopher’.
3.
On
p, 24 Socrates compares himself to the sophists.
They were (basically) sellers of training in the rhetorical arts. Plato
despised them.
4.
Socrates
claims that his only wisdom consists in not thinking he knows more than he
does. In this respect he compares himself favorably to politicians, poets and
artisans. The latter two groups, he says, mistakenly think themselves wise on
all subjects because they have mastered one art. Can you think of instances of
this in your own contemporary culture?
5.
Socrates
next takes up the charge that he corrupts the young. He first tries to
demonstrate that Miletus, his official accuser, has given little thought to
issues of education. Socrates’s `argument’ here (about horses and so on) is a
bit silly, and not the main point; Miletus’s inability to say anything serious
himself is what matters.
6.
p.
31: Socrates suggests that people do not knowingly
do evil on purpose. The idea here
is basically that all wickedness is a form of ignorance.
7.
Socrates
then outrages his audience by maintaining that they should avoid condemning him
for their sake. The claim is that he
does them a service by reminding them of their own lack of wisdom. Note that an
argument with similar logic has often been thought to be one of the main
considerations against censorship of free speech.
8.
Socrates
refuses to throw himself on the mercy of the court, in the ways that were
customary. He justifies this by denouncing these customs. Now, notice: in some
sense a political community just is its
customs. So Socrates is implying that the actual
state is unjust by reference to an ideal
of it. This is an idea that is easier to make out in a state with a written
constitution and set of recorded founding principles, like the USA. It is a
quite strange and radical suggestion in a state like ancient Athens. (The USA
was perhaps the first state in history that self-consciously set out to create
itself according to the Platonic conception that Socrates here expresses.)
9.
After
being found guilty, Socrates must propose a penalty. The prosecution also
proposed one – death. It is then up to the Assembly to choose between these
penalties. Socrates more or less assured his death sentence by proposing a
penalty much too light for the court to take seriously. Again, he implicitly
rejects the whole customary basis of the state – by reference to the ideal of
it as the highest civic good.
10.
p.
45 includes the most famous line attributed to Socrates: “The unexamined life
is not worth living.” Let’s discuss the meaning and possible basis for this
claim.
11.
Socrates
concludes with a simple argument for the conclusion that death is not a bad
thing. It proceeds by way of a dilemma:
(premise): Either death is an absence of
consciousness or it is a new life in better circumstances.
(premise): If death is a new life in better
circumstances, it isn’t a bad thing.
(premise): If death is an absence of consciousness
it is like a peaceful night’s sleep.
(premise): A peaceful night’s sleep is not a bad
thing.
(conclusion): Therefore, even if death is an absence
of consciousness, it isn’t a bad thing.
Let’s evaluate this argument.