Socrates Modest Revision of the Status Quo

“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” These words were spoken by a very famed philosopher, who in his apology, or defense, claimed his innocence in many charges, including the corruption of youth. Of course, in his era, society was spilt between recognizing him with fame or infamy. This is noticed in two of the most insightful plays of Socrates’ life: Aristophanes’ Clouds and Plato’s Apology. Clouds introduces Socrates charges with Apology concluding his trial. Despite a compelling account placing guilt on Socrates by Aristophanes’ Clouds, my belief sits along with Plato’s Apology’s more logical implication in the innocence of Socrates, who offered an alteration to the connection of thought and speech to the youth of his age rather than the accused corruption.

Just speech constitutes a very traditional and morality influenced defense often affiliated with what was right in the views of the Gods in former Greece. Very contrasting, unjust speech is more modernistic, transitioning from the old traditions for more hedonistic reasons. In Aristophanes’ Clouds, Strepsiades says to Pheidippides:

It’s said that they have two speeches, the stronger, whatever it may be, and the weaker. One of these speeches, the weaker, wins, they say, although it speaks the more unjust things. So if you learn this unjust speech for me, I wouldn’t give anyone back an obol of those debts that I owe because of you. (Clouds, lines 113-118)

Aristophanes explains Strepsiades’ understanding as such: Socrates held the ability to teach his students how to win an argument in society using persuasive speech; one which he sought to eliminate his debt. While Strepsiades strongly believed in the gods as being omnipotent in ancient Greek society, ...

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..., isn’t it also just for me likewise to be well-intentioned toward you and to beat you, since in fact to be well-intentioned is to beat?” (Clouds, lines 1410-1414) In this argument, Pheidippides believes it fair to do as his father had done to him as a young child. Strepsiades was deserving of these blows for delivering bad-mouthed names to his son. Aristophanes leads us to believe that this kind of defense is morally alright because the person is defending their rights as stated in line 1414, “And in fact I too was born free.” Ergo, Aristophanes had suggested that a weaker argument was capable of becoming the stronger argument through speech.

In Plato’s Apology, Socrates, being tried for his accusations, recalled what assured him to be the wisest. He recanted the three times when he tested society’s wisdom, telling the story of his conversations with politicians,