The Corruption Of Socrates In Plato's The Apology

Plato’s “The Apology”, is an account of Socrates’ time on trial. Socrates is on trial for two charges, created by two groups of accusers. The initial charge is of “not recognizing the gods recognized by the state” and the second is for “corrupting the youth”. While Plato’s work is called “The Apology”, it is not meant to be considered an apology in the way it is understood in modern day, but rather the current title of Plato’s work is a translation from a Greek word that actually meant “a defense”. That was exactly what Socrates was attempting to do as he stood on trial. The initial group to attack Socrates is a group of older people who have longstanding roots of disliking him and the theories they accuse him of teaching. They charge him with a very solemn accusation saying “Socrates is an evil-doer, and a curious person, who searches into things under the earth and in heaven, and he makes the worse appear the better cause; and he teaches the aforesaid

He allows the youth to see that the high men who are so esteemed are in fact human and are not as wise as they are portrayed to be. Socrates explains to the jury that he is not a dangerous man but in fact he is a sort of hero. He describes the situation as a gadfly that stings a lazy horse into action; him being the gadfly and the state being the lazy horse. He explains that people who question long held beliefs are needed to forward a society. If a society were to never question ancient ideas or beliefs, how are they to progress? As long as a society refuses to consider new philosophies or ideals it is inevitable that they will die out as the world around them moves forward while they remain stagnant. This is something that Socrates saw and therefore considered himself a hero