The Trial Of Socrates
The Trial of Socrates
One of the most argued cases in the history of law is Socrates' trial. Now when examining the trial of Socrates we can see that there are two different sets of charges laid before him, the old accusations and the new accusations. During the trial Socrates encounters problems. The first problem is the reputation Socrates has is the lying accusations that have been made against him for years (18a), and the fact that he has previously never responded. Socrates' technique is simply to ask questions, he has never really explained himself. This makes the problem worse because most of the jury and accusers grew up with his reputation and not with Socrates himself (18b).
After touching on Socrates' reputation we can now evaluate the first set of charges put before him. Socrates first set of accusations consist of "studying things in the sky and below the earth; he makes the worse into a stronger argument, and he teaches the same thing to others."(19b) "All things in the sky and below the earth" would specifically refer to the Pre-Socratics or, as the Greeks said themselves, the "natural philosophers", whose concerns mainly were, indeed, the sky and the earth. (Pg. 10-24) "Who makes the worse argument the stronger." This is the reputation of the Sophists, who said that they taught "virtue", but who ended up largely teaching rhetoric and persuasion. (Pg. 40-49) "He teaches the same things to others" Socrates was not a paid teacher, did not teach persuasion, and in fact did not teach anything, except indirectly. All he did was ask questions.
Having addressed "the earlier accusers" of those who have generated and spread the kind of reputation he has, Socrates now moves to the real charges against him at the moment, and one of his real accusers, Meletus. Socrates never does bother with his other accusers, Anytus and Lycon. "Socrates is guilty of corrupting the...
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