POLISCI

POLISCI


The Innocence of Socrates
Socrates was a well known figure in Plato’s writing. He was a very open minded individual who voiced his opinion when he felt it was necessary. In examining Plato’s Apology, I believe that it was his open mindedness that landed him in trouble. Socrates had two charges brought up against him; corrupting the youth and believing in false gods (Jowett, 2012). I believe that Socrates was innocent and that a few individuals wanted him out of the way because they felt threatened by him.
In the Apology, Socrates was given a chance to defend the charges against him. These were brought on by Meletus who was the primary accuser of Socrates and he was also responsible for bringing him to trial. The first charge against Socrates was the corruption the youth. Meletus stated that Socrates was teaching the youth to go against the government. Socrates argued that there were no members of the government who could benefit the youth so it was impossible for him to be corrupting the youth against anyone (Jowett, 2013). Meletus countered by pointing out a number of influential people who could be beneficial to youth; people such council members, jury, assembly, and even the general public (Sahkai, 2011). In Socrates defence he sated that it was impossible for just him to corrupt the youth when they had so many to point them in the right direction. In addition to Socrates’ previous point he also added that it was impossible for everyone to know what is right for the youth. He goes on to explain his point by giving an example of how a horse trainer is the only one who can train a horse correctly because a horse trainer was taught how to correctly raise horses. A random person walking down the road would not be able to train horses properly, because they were not properly thought how to and would have no experience in doing so (Jowett, 2012). I am very doubtful to that one person can individually corrupt an entire generation of young adults. Some people...