Apology

The Apology of Socrates is a work by Plato that recounts, in the form of a dialogue, the speech with which Socrates defended himself before an Athenian court in 399 BC. He was accused of corrupting the young and of not believing in the city's gods, but in new divinities. The text is not a literal transcript of the trial but a philosophical reconstruction written by a disciple who, according to the work itself, attended the proceedings. For its content it is usually placed among Plato's earliest writings, composed shortly after his teacher's death, at a time when several people published defences of Socrates.

The work opens with Socrates addressing the jury to warn that he is not a speaker accustomed to courts and that he will use the same plain language he uses in the marketplace. He explains the origin of his reputation for wisdom: a friend of his, Chaerephon, asked the oracle at Delphi whether anyone was wiser than Socrates, and the answer was no. Socrates, who did not consider himself wise, spent years looking for someone who could refute the oracle. He questioned politicians, poets and craftsmen, and found that all of them believed they knew what in fact they did not. From this he drew his conclusion: his superiority lies in knowing that he does not know. This practice of examination earned him enemies and the reputation of a busybody, which in his account is the true root of the charges.

As for the formal charges, Socrates dismantles the accusation of impiety by exposing the contradictions of Meletus, the accuser who speaks at the trial, and he refers to his daimonion as an inner voice that warns him against what he should not do. Against the charge of corrupting the young, he argues that he has never been anyone's teacher and that no former disciple has come forward to testify against him. He compares his role to that of a gadfly stinging a sluggish horse, the city, so that it does not fall asleep. After the verdict of guilt by a narrow margin, Socrates proposes as his penalty free meals in the Prytaneum, an honour reserved for great benefactors of Athens, and the court finally condemns him to death.

The work has had an enormous influence on Western philosophy. Its image of a man who prefers death to giving up the examined life has served as a model for reflection on conscience, freedom of expression and the relationship between the individual and the community. Its reading has also been a matter of scholarly debate, concerning how far it reflects the historical thought of Socrates and how much belongs to Plato's own elaboration.