Write your abstract
here.
It's been hotly debated how close Plato's Socrates
is
to the historical
figure, especially in the later works
where his opinions grow stiff and crotchety (in the
Republic he describes, more or less, Hitler Germany and
Stailinist Russia as the ideal state, though without
those
examples at hand to illuminate the finer points. I
think
it's fair to add that Plato would very likely6 have
modified his views rapidly if he'd ever seen such an
ideal
state in operation.)
There is a fairly wide consensus however, that the
closest we come to the historical Socrates is in the
Apology, and other works concerning his trial and
execution. These were written almost as events were
unfolding, and intendet to illuminate not a set of
precepts
and dogmas but an exemplary life.
Socrates' defense against the charge of corrupting
the
youth of Athens is sarcastic and angry, but rigorously
logical. How can he be chaarged with corrupting the
youth
of Athens by his teachings when he has none? when he's
never contended he was wiser than other men because of
what
he knew, but because he acknowledged freely that he was
ignorant? If there's a reason behind these charges it's
that he's shown their ignorance to too many prominent
Athenians---frequently before sizeable audiences in the
public agora.
When he's found
guilty by a narrow margin, his
response
shifts dramatically. His accusers ask for the death
sentence---to be fair, it's likely they propose this
only
so that Socrates will be backed into a corner and have
to
plead for exile instead, anything to get him out of
their
hair. But what could he do in exile? he asks. Would
strangers tolerate his gadfly questions with their
motivating stings if his own countrymen cannot? And is
it
actually possible to stifle that impulse and belt up
for
the rest of his life? It is not: if
people won't
examine
and question their own actions and notions, someone
must
prompt them to it; because the unexamined life is not
worth
living. For the great service of requiring people to
examine their lives, doesn't he deserve what a retired
Olympic athlete or charioteer wins? free meals and
housing
at public expense? If they insist on a penalty, he'll
pay a
fine won't run him into debt---a hundred minae. (Plato
and
Crito hastily inform him they'll stand surety for a
fine of
thirty thousand minae.)
This enrages the Athenian jury so much that they
rapidly vote his death, by a much greater majority than
originally found him guilty---which means a sizeable
number
who favoured acquittal now favour hemlock death. The
verdict of history suggests Socrates was right when he
told
them if they did vote his death, they'd be harming
themselves far more than they could ever harm him.