Plato’s Apology - Creighton University
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Plato’s Apology
The Apology is the first of three dialogues on
trial & death of Socrates
Apology - an account of the trial
Crito - the day before Socrates’
execution
Phaedo - the day of the execution
These three dialogues were probably
written in the 390s B.C.
Plato's Apology & Crito - 1
Plato’s Apology
Most of the dialogue is Socrates’ long speech
to the jury at his trial
1. A special kind of wisdom
• Socrates’ survey
• His conclusion (21d)
– Knowing the limits of one’s
genuine knowledge
– Being able to distinguish between
opinion and genuine knowledge
Plato's Apology & Crito - 2
Plato’s Apology
2. The formal indictment (24 b-c)
• Not the real reason that Socrates
was brought to trial
• What was the real reason?
– Some debate but probably his
hostility to the leaders of the
government and to the
democratic form of government see 31e.
Plato's Apology & Crito - 3
Plato’s Apology
• Some secondary factors
– By their persistent questioning,
Socrates and his students
annoyed many prominent
Athenians
– Socrates’ refusal to lend his
support to the government’s
prosecution of 10 generals after
the Peloponnesian War (32b).
See Tarrant’s note 55 on p. 220.
Plato's Apology & Crito - 4
Plato’s Apology
3. Socrates’ apology
• The sense of the word “apology”
here
Are two apologies (closely related)
• (1) Care for the soul (30b)
Plato's Apology & Crito - 5
Plato’s Apology
• (2) The classic passage: “. . . The
unexamined life is not worth living .
. .” (Grube trans. 38a) [Tredennick
& Tarrant: “. . . Life without this
sort of examination is not worth
living . . .”]
• Cf. The analogy to a fly buzzing
around a lethargic horse (30e-31a)
Plato's Apology & Crito - 6
Plato’s Apology
4. The conviction & sentencing
Convicted initially by a vote of 281 to
220 & sentenced to death
• Socrates is invited to propose an
alternative penalty
• His response
• The second vote for the death
penalty
Plato's Apology & Crito - 7
Plato’s Apology
5. Closing comments on death
• Death is one of two things:
annihilation or change; Socrates
does not argue for one or the other
here
• The latter is a form of immortality
• In either case, it is nothing to fear
Plato's Apology & Crito - 8
Plato’s Crito
Plato’s Crito
An account of the day before Socrates’
execution
1. Socrates & Plato on the opinions of the
masses (44d)
• Socrates & Plato's elitism
Plato's Apology & Crito - 9
Plato’s Crito
2. Socrates’ reasons for refusing to
escape
Some secondary reasons
• fate
• old age
• is immoral to do wrong in response
to wrong (49b & 49d)
Plato's Apology & Crito - 10
Plato’s Crito
The primary reason: The social contract
theory
• main elements
– an agreement (49e, 51e)
analogy of state to parents (51b-d)
– tacit
– when made? (51d)
– emigrate (51d)
– no violence (51c)
Plato's Apology & Crito - 11
Plato’s Crito
– What if one disagrees with the
laws and rules of one’s state?
(51c)
Only 2 options (51b-c, 52a)
A secondary reason for refusing to
escape
• A consequentialist argument (50b &
53b)
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Plato’s Crito
A critique of Socrates’ arguments in the Crito
If one disagrees with the laws of one’s
state, are there only 2 options?
Difficulties with the right to emigrate
The scope of the contract - how does it
include non-participants?
Joseph Tussman’s surrogate theory
Plato's Apology & Crito - 13
Plato’s Crito
Critique (cont’d)
What if one makes an agreement to an evil
government? Socrates tries to cover
(49e). Does he succeed?
The paradox
Hanna Pitkin’s theory of hypothetical
consent
Plato's Apology & Crito - 14
Plato’s Crito
Critique (cont’d)
In his death, was Socrates a martyr for
free speech? Was he “the first martyr of
free speech”? (I.F. Stone)
A brief history of the social contract theory
after Plato
Plato’s Crito is the locus classicus
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
Plato's Apology & Crito - 15
Plato’s Crito
John Locke (English, 1632-1704) Two Treatises of Government (167983)
Jean Jacques Rousseau (French, 17121778) - Du Contrat Social (1762)
Thomas Jefferson (United States,
1743-1826) - Declaration of
Independence (1776)
Plato's Apology & Crito - 16
Plato’s Crito
John Rawls (United States, b. 1921) A Theory of Justice (1971)
Plato's Apology & Crito - 17