Is Socrates Guilty As Charged?

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A Brief Comment on the Query: "Is Socrates Guilty As Charged?"

In any case of law, when one is considering truth and justice, one must first look at the validity of the court and of the entity of authority itself.
In Socrates case, the situation is no different. One may be said to be guilty or not of any said crime, but the true measure of guilt or innocence is only as valid as the court structure to which it is subject to. Therefore, in considering whether Socrates is 'guilty or not', we must keep in mind the societal norms and standards of Athens at the time, and the legitimacy of his accusers and the validity of the crimes that he allegedly committed. Having said this, we must first look at the affidavit of the trial, what exactly Socrates was being accused with: "Socrates does injustice and is meddlesome, by investigating the things under the earth and the heavenly things, and by making the weaker speech the stronger, and by teaching others these same things."1 In breaking this charge down, we see that it is two-fold.
Firstly, Socrates is charges with impiety, a person who does not believe in the state gods of Athens and, not only that, but by its literal meaning, does not believe in the authority of gods at all. To this, Socrates seems baffled. He states that the reason behind the 'criminal meddling', the questioning of people's wisdom, was commissioned to him by the gods through the Oracle of
Delphi. As Socrates said, "...but when god stationed me, as I supposed and assumed, ordering me to live philosophizing and examining myself and others...that my whole care is to commit no unjust or impious deed."2He even seems to win a victory over one of his accusers, Meletus, in questioning this point. As Socrates points out, it is impossible for him to be both atheistic and to believe in demons, or false gods, for if he believes in the latter, then that would contradict his not believing in gods at all (since even demons are considered to be at least demi-gods).
The second part of the charge was that Socrates was attacking the very fabric of the Athenian society by corrupting its citizens, namely the youth. In other words, Meletus and the other accusers are accusing Socrates of a crime of
'non-conformity' - ins...

... middle of paper ...

...thenian justice system, one could say that Socrates might have dabbled in a bit of treason in a way, since those who he was publicly making a mockery out of were those who were in positions of authority. But overall, it cannot be denied that Socrates suffered a great injustice by being found guilty, by being put on trial in the first place. The true substance of the trial was never a criminal matter nor a strain on democracy, but a challenge to an oppressive and oligarcical ruling class, and Socrates became an symbol of true wisdom and knowledge, a symbol that needed to be disposed of for the elites to remain the power-holders in society.

List of Works Cited

Plato. "The Apology of Socrates." West, Thomas G. and West, Grace Starry, eds.
Plato and Aristophanes: Four Texts on Socrates. Itacha, NY: Cornell University
Press, 1984.

1Plato, "The Apology of Socrates," Thomas G. West and Grace Starry West, eds.,
Plato and Aristophanes: Four Texts on Socrates. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press, 1984), s.19c, p.66.

2Ibid, s.29a/32d, p.80/p.85.

3Ibid, s.28b, p.79.

4Ibid, s.25e, p.75.

5Ibid, s.26a, p.75.

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