The Trail Of Socrates And The Apology Of Plato

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During this essay the trail of Socrates found in the Apology of Plato will be reviewed. What will be looked at during this review is how well Socrates rebuts the charges made against him. We will also talk about if Socrates made the right decision to not escape prison with Crito. Socrates was a very intelligent man; this is why this review is so critical. In Plato’s Apology it seems that overall Socrates did an effective job using the 3 acts of the mind. The three acts of the mind are: Understanding, Judgment, and Reasoning. These acts are stragically used to rebut the charges made against him during trial. The two charges that are formed against Socrates are corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods. The first act of the mind that we will be looking at is, understanding. The question that needs to be asked is what does corruption mean? The accuser believe that Socrates in corrupting the minds of the children by introducing new concepts. Socrates is trying to teach and involve the minds of the youth by getting them to ask question. It is very important that people are always asking questions about why things are. The next question that needs to be address is what does not believe in the gods mean? Socrates believes in God but that is one god that rules the world, not multiple gods who together rule. They are mad that he has “created” his own god. The act of the mind of Judgment is can be very controversial. The main points under review with this act are was Socrates a corrupter or an improver? And was Socrates an atheist. In my opinion Socrates does a good job of using judgment to rebut his charges. Judgment is very hard to use as valid reasoning. Everyone has there own judgments about everything. How does one know i... ... middle of paper ... ...uments are completely different. Crito wants Socrates to escape because he doesn’t deserve to die because he did nothing wrong. Socrates argues back that if he escapes he will be breaking the law. Which is the thing that he is trying to uphold. Socrates believes that escaping will go against all the things he has been arguing and teaching the youth. In my opinion Socrates is giving as a good model of a vocation of a philosopher. When I think of a philosopher I think of some that gets people to ask questions and think. This is exactly what Socrates does for the people of Athens. He is accused of doing wrong when he is just trying to help advance society. Another thing that makes him a great philosopher is the fact that he sticks to his moral throughout. He has the ability to escape prison but he knows that would go against all of his teachings. So he accepts death.

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