How Does Aristophanes Present Plato In The Apology

904 Words2 Pages

Plato's The Apology is the speech Socrates made when he was in trial being charged with not recognizing the gods of the the state, inventing new deities, and corrupting the youth of Athens. Socrates' speech, however, is by no means an "apology" in the denoted reference of the word. In fact, Socrates attempts to defend himself and his conduct--certainly not to apologize for it. Meletus, the chief accuser of Socrates, brings him to trial on these accounts in the aforementioned. Although Socrates does a good job of making Meletus look foolish during the trial, he does not address the underlying charges that have been raised against him, which ultimately renders his defense unsuccessful.

For the most part, Socrates speaks in a very …show more content…

In his play, The Clouds, Aristophanes lampooned Socrates by presenting him as the paradigm of atheistic, scientific sophistry. Yet it is unlikely that Aristophanes would have intended these charges to be taken seriously, since Plato depicts Aristophanes and Socrates as being on very good terms with each other in the Symposium. "For those who are examined, instead of being angry with themselves, are angry with me!" This is the essential reconciliation for why Socrates is considered wise, and, at the same time, acquired a bad reputation among the most socially powerful …show more content…

He indicates that Chaerephon, known for his wisdom all around, went to the Oracle of Delphi and asked the oracle to tell him whether anyone was wiser than Socrates. The oracle responded by saying that there was no man wiser. Socrates indicates that he was shocked by this statement: on the one hand, it is against the nature of the oracle to lie, but, on the other hand, he knew he was not wise. Therefore, he set out to find someone wiser than himself, so that he could let the oracle know of the error made. This is what led him to the examination of everyone who was known to be wise, and his cause to test the politicians, poets and scholars. But, in doing so, he found that none of them possessed wisdom. For those examined, they did not know how to come to terms of them being imposters of wisdom, so not to be at a loss of a defense, these people merely state the prejudicial charges that Socrates is an abomination and corrupts the youth.

On trial, with his life at stake, Socrates keeps his cool and defends his way of life as unassailably just. But he doesn’t justify the accusations at all. Socrates is not discussing and dismantling any one particular claim so much as he is laying out the method behind these

Show More
Related

  • Who Is Pericles Wise

    813 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout all the years, he never could find anyone as wise as himself, and all he did was make enemies searching. These enemies are now his accusers, and they accuse him of spreading evil doctrines, corrupting the youth, and not believing in the Gods. Throughout the speech, Socrates continues to shoot down every accuser and it is evident that he has done no wrong. Eventually, one of his accusers states that he must be doing something strange and that he wouldnt be that famous if he were like other men. Socrates did not live a very public life unlike most people at that time.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Xenophon And The Apology

    1209 Words  | 3 Pages

    Plato, being an admirer and student of Socrates, wrote his version of Socrates’ speech as he defended himself in court against his charges of corrupting the youth, and impiety called The Apology. In comparison, Xenophon also wrote his version of the speech. Seeing as though each author has many supporting details that support their view as far as the outcome of the trial, Plato’s version of his apology may have been somewhat biased. Xenophon, on the other hand, was more at peace with the outcome of the trial. Considering this trial took place in 399 BC, there were no Greek court reporters, audio or video tapings, news records, so on and so forth.

    Read More

  • Comparison Between Crito And Apology by Plato

    1631 Words  | 4 Pages

    Plato's The Apology is an account of the speech. Socrates makes at the trial in which he is charged with not recognizing the gods recognized by the state, inventing new gods, and corrupting the youth of Athens. For the most part, Socrates speaks in a very plain, conversational manner. He explains that he has no experience with the law courts and that he will instead speak in the manner to which he is accustomed with honesty and directness. Socrates then proceeds to interrogate Meletus, the man primarily responsible for bringing Socrates before the jury. He strongly attacks Meletus for wasting the court¡¦s time on such absurd charges. He then argues that if he corrupted the young he did so unknowingly since Socrates believes that one never deliberately acts wrongly. If Socrates neither did not corrupt the young nor did so unknowingly, then in both cases he should not be brought to trial. The other charge is the charge of impiety. This is when Socrates finds an inconsistency in Meletus¡¦ belief that Socrates is impious. If he didn¡¦t believe in any gods then it would be inconsistent to say that he believed in spiritual things, as gods are a form of a spiritual thing. He continues to argue against the charges, often asking and answering his own questions as if he were speaking in a conversation with one of his friends. He says that once a man has found his passion in life it would be wrong of him to take into account the risk of life or death that such a passion might involve.

    Read More

  • The Apology and Crito

    345 Words  | 1 Pages

    Plato’s "Apology" gives the substance of the defense made by Socrates to the Athenians at his trial. Meletus, Anytus and Lyncon brought Socrates to court on charges of corrupting the morals of the youth, leading the youth away from the principals of democracy, neglecting the Gods of the State and introducing new divinities.

    Read More

  • The Innocence In Plato's The Apology Of Socrates

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    Aristophanes wrote a comedy about this accusation and Socrates does refer to this in his trial. The comedy portrays him as someone who “swings around claiming he’s walking on air and talking a lot of other nonsense on subject that I know neither a lot nor a little but nothing at all about.” (Plato 650) Socrates goes on to explain that he has “acquired this reputation because of nothing other than a sort of wisdom.” (Plato 651) He goes deeper into this explanation by saying he possesses “human wisdom. For it may just be that I really do have that sort of wisdom, whereas the people I mentioned just now

    Read More

  • Plato's Apology: The Argument For Corrupting The Youth Of Plato

    785 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Plato’s Apology, when Socrates is pleading his defence, he makes a good argument against the charges of corrupting the youth of Athens. This is evident when he states that, firstly, Meletus, the man who is trying to get Socrates executed, has never cared about the youth of Athens and has no real knowledge on the subject. Secondly, Socrates states that if he was in some way corrupting the youth, then he was doing it unintentionally or unwillingly, in which case he was brought to court for no reason. Finally, Socrates brings to light the fact that Meletus doesn’t have a single witness to attest to Socrates’ corruption. This is how Socrates proves his argument that he isn’t responsible for corrupting the youth of Athens.

    Read More

  • Plato's Apology Analysis

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Plato’s Apology, Socrates uses religious appeals, proof by contradictions and various examples to argue for his innocence in court. Socrates is forced to argue for the sake of his life to prove that he is not guilty. In Socrates’ speech, however, he is not apologizing for anything instead, the word comes from the Greek word “apologia,” that translates to a speech made in defense. In this paper, I will argue that Socrates’ decision to stay in Athens and to accept suicide was unethical, because he purposefully antagonized the people who control his fate and this ultimately led to the death penalty.

    Read More

  • An Apology From Socrates

    1717 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Apology is Socrates' defense at his trial. As the dialogue begins, Socrates notes that his accusers have cautioned the jury against Socrates' eloquence, according to Socrates, the difference between him and his accusers is that Socrates speaks the truth. Socrates distinguished two groups of accusers: the earlier and the later accusers. The earlier group is the hardest to defend against, since they do not appear in court. He is all so accused of being a Sophist: that he is a teacher and takes money for his teaching. He attempts to explain why he has attracted such a reputation. The oracle was asked if anyone was wiser than Socrates was. The answer was no, there was no man wiser. Socrates cannot believe this oracle, so he sets out to disprove it by finding someone who is wiser. He goes to a politician, who is thought wise by him self and others. Socrates does not think this man to be wise and tells him so. As a consequence, the politician hated Socrates, as did others who heard the questioning. "I am better off, because while he knows nothing but thinks that he knows, I neither know nor think that I know" (Socrates). He questioned politicians, poets, and artisans. He finds that the poets do not write from wisdom, but by genius and inspiration. Meletus charges Socrates with being "a doer of evil, and corrupter of the youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the State, and has other new divinities of his own."

    Read More

  • The Trail Of Socrates And The Apology Of Plato

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Plato’s Apology it seems that overall Socrates did an effective job using the 3 acts of the mind. The three acts of the mind are: Understanding, Judgment, and Reasoning. These acts are stragically used to rebut the charges made against him during trial. The two charges that are formed against Socrates are corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods. The first act of the mind that we will be looking at is, understanding. The question that needs to be asked is what does corruption mean? The accuser believe that Socrates in corrupting the minds of the children by introducing new concepts. Socrates is trying to teach and involve the minds of the youth by getting them to ask question. It is very important that people are always asking questions about why things are. The next question that needs to be address is what does not believe in the gods mean? Socrates believes in God but that is one god that rules the world, not multiple gods who together rule. They are mad that he has “created” his own god.

    Read More

  • The Apology and the Republic

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Apology, Socrates was told by the Delphic Oracle that there was nobody wiser than him. With ancient Greece having been a prominent home of philosophy and art since before Socrates' time, the Athenian court found his proclamation both insulting and hard to believe. Socrates goes through great lengths to find the wisest of men and seeing if their reputations are in fact true. He hoped to find a man wiser than him to prove the oracles prediction was false, even Socrates failed to believe he was the wisest man. He first went to a man that seemed wise. After he spoke with him Plato quotes "I came to see that, though many persons, and chiefly himself, thought that he was wise, yet he was not wise."(77) With his certainty that Socrates was wiser, the man was insulted and hated Socrates for derailing his intelligence. Socrates then goes to another wise man, but is again let down. He still believes he is wiser. Convinced that he would not find a more intelligent man amongst wise men, he then questioned the more "educated people", such as poets and artisans. According to Plato, Socrates says "I imagine, they find a great abundance of men who think that they know a great...

    Read More

  • Plato's Apology

    807 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his defense, Socrates claims over and again that he is innocent and is not at all wise, “…for I know that I have no wisdom, small or great.” Throughout the rest of his oration he seems to act the opposite as if he is better than every man, and later he even claims that, “At any rate, the world has decided that Socrates is in some way superior to other men.” This seems to be his greatest mistake, claiming to be greater than even the jury.

    Read More

  • Socrates In The Apology

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the opening of The Apology, Socrates informed the jurors how he intends to address them, what they should pay attention to in his remarks, and what he sees as his greatest obstacle in gaining an acquittal. How does he intend to address the jury? Socrates’ approach towards addressing the jury is way different than what you would see a normal defendant doing. Socrates does not stand in front of the jury and beg that he doesn’t get charged. Instead, Socrates believes that you shouldn’t have to cry and beg for the right to live in court if the defendant has done nothing wrong. The first thing that he says when speaking to the jury was to basically hear him out, and listen to even if he started to talk in his language of habit. He then said they should excuse that because he is seventy years old and has never appeared in court. “I must beg of you to grant me one favor, If you hear me using the same words in my defense which I have been in habit of using, and which most of you may have heard in the agora, and at the table of the money-changers, or anywhere else, I would ask you to not be surprised at this, and bot to interrupt me (Dover p. 19).”

    Read More

  • Defense of Socrates

    589 Words  | 2 Pages

    Socrates’ argument was unique in that he tried to convince the jury he was just an average man and not to be feared, but in actuality demonstrated how clever and tenacious he was. He begins with an anecdote of his visit to the Oracle of Delphi, which told him that there was no man smarter than he. He, being as humble as he is, could not take the Oracle’s answer for granted and went about questioning Athenians he felt surpassed his intelligence. However, in questioning politicians, poets, and artisans, he found that they claimed to know of matters they did not know about. Socrates considered this to be a serious flaw, and, as Bill S. Preston, Esq. put it: that “true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing.”

    Read More

  • Socrates and the Sophists

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    Socrates was a philosopher who set out to prove, to the gods, that he wasn't the wisest man. Since he could not afford a "good" Sophist teacher, surely a student of one had to be smarter than he. He decides to converse with the youth of Athens, but concludes that he actually is wiser than everyone he speaks with. He then realizes that their lack of intelligence is the fault of their teachers. Socrates understands that the practice of "sophism" leads to a lack of self-knowledge and moral values. Socrates was later accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and put on trial. In The Apology of Socrates he sta...

    Read More

  • The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... when he is discussing the unexamined life. When Socrates mentions the oracle, he is explaining how one can believe he knows all but still can question life. Although he believes that a smarter man will not be found, Socrates still questions and examines the life he leads. This is the basic concept of philosophy, to try to examine and understand what is going on in life. Socrates understands that without this questioning, there would be no philosophy or a worthwhile life. (Plato 25)

    Read More

More about How Does Aristophanes Present Plato In The Apology

Open Document