Apology

1. Apology By Plato

2. Life of Socrates (469-399) • Socrates was a stone cutter by trade, even though there is little evidence that he did much to make a living. However, he did have enough money to own a suit of armor when he was a hoplite in the Athenian military. • Socrates' mother was a midwife. • He was married and had three sons. • Throughout his life he claimed to hear voices which he interpreted as signs from the gods.

3. Life of Socrates • It appears that Socrates spent much of his adult life in the agora (or the marketplace) conversing about ethical issues. • He had a penchant for exposing ignorance, hypocrisy, and conceit among his fellow Athenians, particularly in regard to moral questions. In all probability, he was disliked by most of them.

4. Life of Socrates • Socrates did have a loyal following. He was very influential in the lives of Plato, Euclid, Alcibiades, and many others. As such, he was associated with the undemocratic faction of Athens. Although Socrates went to great lengths to distinguish himself from the sophists, it is unlikely that his fellow Athenians made such a distinction in their minds.

5. Life of Socrates • Having served with some distinction as a soldier at Delium and Amphipolis during the Peloponnesian War, Socrates dabbled in the political turmoil that consumed Athens after the War, then retired from active life to work as a stonemason and to raise his children with his wife, Xanthippe.

6. Life of Socrates • For the rest of his life, Socrates devoted himself to free-wheeling discussion with the aristocratic young citizens of Athens, insistently questioning their unwarranted confidence in the truth of popular opinions, even though he often offered them no clear alternative teaching. • Unlike the professional Sophists of the time, Socrates pointedly declined to accept payment for his work with students, but despite (or, perhaps, because) of this lofty disdain for material success, many of them were fanatically loyal to him.

7. Life of Socrates • Although the amnesty of 405 forestalled direct prosecution for his political activities, an Athenian jury found other charges—corrupting the youth and interfering with the religion of the city—upon which to convict Socrates, and they sentenced him to death in 399 B.C.E. Accepting this outcome with remarkable grace, Socrates drank hemlock and died in the company of his friends and disciples.

8. Aplogy • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bVBpLjh13E

9. Socrates’ Philosophical Attitude • Socrates is admired by many philosophers for his willingness to explore an argument wherever it would lead as well as having the moral courage to follow its conclusion.

10. Socrates Method • dialectic {Gk. dialektikh [dialektikê]} • Process of thinking by means of dialogue, discussion, debate, or argument. In ancient Greece, the term was used literally. Parmenides and the other Eleatics used such methods to defend paradoxical claims about the natural world. Dialectic is questioning and conversation for Socrates, but Plato regarded it as a systematic method for studying the Forms of suprasensible reality. Although he frequently employed dialectical methods in his own writing, Aristotle maintained that it is inferior to the careful logical reasoning that aims at theoretical knowledge {Gk. episthmh [epistêmê]}.

11. Virtue – Perfection of Character • areth [aretê] • Greek word for unique excellence or skill of any sort; hence, especially, moral virtue. • Socrates supposed that areth can be identified with knowledge of the good. • Plato distinguished four distinct virtues as crucial components of the perfect state or person. • Aristotle maintained that moral areth is invariably found as the mean between vicious extremes.