Plato's Apology “The unexamined life is not worth living.” --Socrates

Content of the work Socrates’s defense against charges of impiety before the Athenian court. Note: “Apology” here means defense or justification, not expression of regret for a transgression.

Timeline 469 B.C.: Socrates is born 431 B.C.: Peloponnesian Wars begin 427 B.C.: Plato is born 404 B.C.: Sparta defeats Athens, imposes rule of “the Thirty” (32c) 403 B.C.: Democracy restored 399 B.C.: Socrates is prosecuted 347 B.C.: Plato dies

Charges against Socrates Formal charges: irreligion and corruption of youth Earlier, informal charges underlying these

Earlier charges Studies things in the sky and below the earth Makes the worse argument the stronger (like the Sophists) Does not believe in the gods Teaches these things to others (like the Sophists)

Studies things in the sky and below the earth This charge equates Socrates with earlier philosophers such as Anaxagoras, who sought natural and metaphysical first principles (see 26d) The charge suggests that Socrates uses science to attack religion But Socrates turns philosophy inward, and will appeal to a divine mission.

Oracles in classical Greece Priests or priestesses who transmit divine messages They interpret signs, such as: – rustle of leaves or movement of objects cast into a spring – frenzied, ecstatic cries of enchanted priestesses Their pronouncements are often cryptic.

Socrates and the oracle at Delphi “No one is wiser than Socrates.” Socrates: He means I avoid claiming to know what I don’t know. Socrates: He means I should expose the false conceit of knowledge by challenging people to reflective justification. Appeals to this command in justification of his conduct.

Divine command theory revisited Contradiction with Euthyphro? Is Socrates defining piety as what the gods approve of? Comparison with Abraham Role of interpretation Another possibility: ironic interpretation of Socrates’s appeal (38a)