How Does Socrates Corrupt Youth

The apology is a form of speech that was addressed to a jury of some 500 Athenians by Socrates in his defense. He was accused with the charge of corrupting the youth and refused in believing in the gods of the state. He starts his speech by addressing the old accuser first. He claims that many before Meletus over the years had accused him. He says that while Meletus is the reason why he is there today, it is the multitude of the voice of old accusers that will get him convicted. People say that he makes outlandish claims and that he corrupts the youth. Also, that he refuses to believe in the gods of the state. He claimed that he knew nothing and that he lacks the ability to instruct the youth on how to make a weak argument stronger. Socrates

suggested that the reason people hate him is because he knows that he knows nothing which makes him possess a unique wisdom which makes him wiser than those who think they know something but know nothing.
He first tries to explain what this wisdom. He talked about how he sought after the poets, artisans, and politicians to see if they knew of anything of value and he came up with nothing. All he found was people who thought they were wise. He concluded that humans were foolish to think that they were wise and the only to think we can do to make it better is to admit that like Socrates we know nothing. That was his argument to show why he does what he does. The whole reason Socrates is telling the jury this is to explain how this bad reputation of him came about. He tries to explain that when the youth of the city see him do this, they imitate him. When that youth starts to question the elders of their society and make a fool out of them they start putting the blame on Socrates. But the reality is that he never actually asked them to listen to him or copy him. This was his justification for the old accusers
Socrates then addresses is new accuser Meletus.

He makes two points one that no man would wish evil up his self. He knows that if he does evil then in return that evil will come back to him. So, to say that he is intentionally corrupting the youth is absurd. But if he does corrupt the youth its unintentional and therefore doesn’t need to be brought to court but needs to be cautioned privately. Meletus is still insistent on his accusations. So, he goes on to make his second point that Meletus is contradicting his own accusations by saying that he corrupts the youth by teaching them things like virtue, wisdom, and pertaining to divinities but to teach anything pertaining to gods he must acknowledge the gods in some way. But Meletus accused him of not acknowledging the gods of the state. So, therefor Meletus must be lying. He says that Meletus doesn’t care about the youth of the Athens but has a grudge against him and that’s why he wants him dead.

He goes on to compare himself to a gadfly. I didn’t know what a gadfly was, so I had to research. He says that what he does is to wake up the people of Athens from their slumber and that he will not stop even on the pain of death because it’s good for them. He goes on to make the point that if he really is corrupting the youth then why is it that the relatives of that very youth come to his defense showing that Meletus is

lying.
The last point he makes is that he will not try to appeal to the jury emotionally dispute the fact that most people would because he doesn’t want their emotions to play a part in his judgment. He only asks that they do what they think is right. I think argument was very well made and clarified in a lot of detail showing his point and that Meletus was contradicting his self. But still he was charged guilty and put to death. I think part of that could be because the jury was afraid of the change that would bring among the youth if they didn’t charge him for thinking differently. That his point of view is reasonable and that it is acceptable for the society to follow. So, in order to keep the society from changing. They thought it was better to get rid of the one old man then to risk the change he might bring in the next generation.