Meletus Was The Corrupter Of The Youth

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During Socrates’ life on earth, he challenged traditional thinking in an honest, down to earth way and set the fundamentals of modern western philosophy. However, meletus, a young, egotistical person with the goal to destroy Socrates’ life for “corrupting the yout,” condemned him to death. Conversely, Meletus was actually the person who corrupted the youth for two obvious reasons; he is ignorant and careless. First of all, there was no legitimate reason Socrates should have been brought to court and absolutely no reason he should have been found guilty. Socrates lived a humble, poor life so that he could spread his wise words throughout the land. He was not boastful and he did not preach anything that he did not believe himself. “It seems …show more content…

According to Socrates, “Meletus is guilty of dealing frivolously with serious matters, of irresponsibly bringing people into court, and of professing to be seriously concerned with things about none of which he has ever cared” (Apology 24c). When Meletus brought Socrates to court upon unjust charges that should have been taken care of outside of court, it was extremely careless and cost an innocent man his life. Then Socrates claims that Meletus has no concern for the youth, but instead has weak alternative reasons for bringing Socrates to court. “You have made it sufficiently obvious, Meletus, that you have never had any concern for our youth; You show your indifference clearly; that you have given no thought to the subjects about which you bring me to trial” (Apology 25c). This carelessness that Meletus shows is more dangerous than any philosophical persuasion that Socrates ever did. Socrates never put any person’s life in danger, instead he fought for life and justice like he tried to persuade Euthyphro not to kill his father (Euthryphro, 4). However, Meletus does not hesitate to destroy an innocent man’s reputation and does not even show remorse when he takes his life. At least Socrates has passion and meaning when he tries to persuade the

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