Essay Questions For Plato's Apology

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For Plato’s Apology (in Abel) Answer each of the following questions in complete sentences:
1. What are the three official charges brought against Socrates?
Impiety
Corruption of Youth
Meddling in needless curiosity of the Earth.

2. What does Socrates think really motivates his prosecutors?
Fear is the biggest motivator.
My girlfriend and I had a debate about hate a couple days ago just to talk about the world and things that we hear and see. We hate the unknown. We fear and out of fear manifest hate. We can see because of the Thirty Tyrants from the Spartan's anti-democratic model of government that these people were in complete fear of the change held within in their borders.
They feared change. Socrates’s was about change to a degree. …show more content…

Socrates concedes that he is actually the wisest person in Athens—but only in one crucial respect. What is it? Explain what he means by it.
Socrates denies any expertise, and interprets the oracle as saying that the wisest of men are men like Socrates who humbly accept that their wisdom is deficient. He feels it his duty to the God of the oracle to continue questioning men who think they are wise in order to show them that they are not.

5. How does Socrates describe his mission to Athens? Explain his analogy with the horse and gadfly.
Socrates is almost claiming to be the Messiah of this city. He believes he was sent from God to persuade them, look after them, to rouse them and test them. It appears he could be a pain in the butt as gadflies could be to the horse. Thought that was funny.
In all seriousness, a Gadfly is someone who interferes with the status quo of a society/community. He believes he is there to stir up ideas and concepts to get them out of their complacent lives. The horse is the people whom he is picking their brains. Like a gadfly irritating them and biting their thoughts. He tries to show them that through this analogy where they are at now in thinking, that their political mindset is incorrect or

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