Summary

The version I read was translated by Benjamin Jowett.

Shitty one-sentence summary

The Apology is Socrates's non-apology.

Characters

• Socrates: the Athenian philosopher who is being put on trial
• Meletus: Socrates's accuser on behalf of the poets
• Anytus: Socrates's accuser on behalf of the craftsmen and politicians
• Lycon: Socrates's accuser on behalf of the rhetoricians

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Major themes and concepts

He is wisest who knows that his wisdom is worth nothing

No one would knowingly harm his neighbors, because it is better to live among good neighbors than bad ones

Socrates has a divine mission to persuade the people to care about the improvement of the soul (and is perhaps schizophrenic?)

No one knows if death is perhaps not the greatest good

Either,

• (1) death is a state of nothingness, like an undisturbed sleep, which is a good (for eternity is then only a single night), or
• (2) there is a change of the soul from one world to another, and there would be nothing greater; to find the true judges and to speak with Orpheus and Homer and other heroes, and I will be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge.

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Reading notes

Socrates: Don't mind the manner in which I speak -- think only of the truth of my words. I will first address my older accusations, then the later ones.

Part 1: Socrates addresses the old charges

The old charges are that:

"Socrates is an evil-doer, and a curious person, who searches into things under the earth and in heaven, and he makes the worse appear the better cause; and he teaches the aforementioned doctrines to others."

I am not a teacher

Unfortunately, I do not know my accusers and cannot cross-examine them, so I must fight with my shadows in my own defense.

• In response:
  • First, witnesses in the audience would agree that I have nothing to do with physical speculations.
  • Second, I am not a teacher; I do not believe that it is possible to instruct mankind, but even if it were, I have no knowledge to be able to teach anyone.

He is wisest who knows that his wisdom is worth nothing

• Some may say, "Yes, but where did these accusations come from?"
• I will tell you their origin: it has come from rumors of a certain kind of wisdom that I possess. My witness is the God of Delphi: Chaerephon went to Delphi and asked whether there was anyone wiser than I, and the prophetess said that there was none -- Chaerephon's brother will confirm this. However, I know that I possess no wisdom, so I sought out to find a man wiser than I so that I could bring a refutation to the god.
  • I went to a politician who was thought to be wise, but found that neither of us were wise, but I was better off than he — because he knows nothing yet things that he knows, while I neither know nor think that I know. I did the same for many other "wise" men, and found the same result. I found that the men with the highest reputations were the most foolish; and those less esteemed were really the wiser.
  • I went to the poets and found that they could not even explain their own poetry; and the greater their poetry the more they believed themselves to be wise in things that they were not.
  • Lastly, I went to the artisans and found the same.
• Only the god¹ is wise, and in the answer that Socrates is the wisest among men, he means that "He is wisest who knows that his wisdom is worth nothing." So I devote my life to showing those who think themselves wise that they are in reality not wise at all.

• Then, young men come to me and imitate me, showing that there are many who think they know something but really know nothing, and then those same people become mad at me. But if someone asks them what evils Socrates preaches, they cannot say; so they repeat the same accusations made against all philosophers.

Part 2: Socrates addresses the new charges headed by Meletus

Now, let us address the second class of accusations, headed by Meletus. They say:

"Socrates is a doer of evil, who corrupts the youth, and who does not believe in the gods of the state, but has other new divinities of his own."

However, I believe that it is Meletus who is a doer of evil, because he pretends to have an interest in things that he in reality does not. Let me question him:

• Socrates (S): So, you care about improving the youth? What improves the youth?
• Meletus (M): The laws.
• S: No, who is the person who improves the youth?
• M: The judges, the audience, the senators, the members of the assembly.
• S: So, everyone except me?
• M: Yes.
• S: Then you think that one man does them harm and all others good? Isn't it the opposite, that few men can do them good, and many can do them harm? But regardless, let us ask another question: isn't it better to live among good citizens? And wouldn't people rather be benefitted by those who live with him than injured?
  • ⇒ If I intentionally corrupt the youth, I would be creating bad neighbors and make it likely that they would harm me, but no one wants to be injured. So either:
    • (1) I do not corrupt the youth, or (2) I do so unintentionally (which the law should not punish).
  • But let us move on: in what way do I corrupt the youth? Your indictment states that I teach them to not worship the state's gods, but rather other new divinities. So, do you believe that I do believe in some gods, or that I am an atheist?
• M: That you are an atheist. You don't believe in gods of the sun and moon — you believe that the sun is stone and the moon is earth.
• S: I think that you're accusing Anaxagoras, who claims these doctrines in his books. Moreover, are you trying to trick me? There's a contradiction in your words:
  • Has anyone ever believed in the existence of human things, but not in the existence of humans? Can someone believe in spiritual and divine agencies, but not in spirits and demigods? (M: No.)
  • But you say in your indictments that I teach and believe in divine beings — therefore in spirits and demigods — are these not gods or the sons of gods? (M: They are.)
  • There's the contradiction! You say that I do not believe in gods, and then that I do.

Part 3: Socrates explains his divine mission

S: Some may ask, are you not ashamed of your actions that are likely to end your life? I say: a man should not calculate the chance of living or dying; only whether his actions are right or wrong. He should not think of death; only of disgrace. My actions would be strange if I abandoned my divine mission of searching into myself and into others upon the fear of death.

• The fear of death is the pretense of wisdom, because no one knows if death is not perhaps the greatest good. This is what is disgraceful: thinking to know that which one does not know.
• Even if you let me go on the condition that I could not continue my inquiry, I would reply: Men of Athens, I respect you, but I shall follow the god instead of you. This is the commandment of the god, and I believe that no greater good has happened to the state than my service to the god, for I do nothing but persuade you all to care about the improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue does not come from money, but from virtue comes money and every other good of man. This is my teaching, and I will not alter my ways, even if I must die many times.

Socrates is the best thing that has happened to mankind (and is perhaps schizophrenic?)

I have more to say; please do not interrupt, for you may be inclined to cry out. If you kill me or one like me, you will injure yourselves more than me. Nothing will injure me, for a bad man cannot injure one better than himself. Meletus and Anytus may kill, exile, or deprive him, but the evil of the act is far greater than the injury.

• I am not arguing for my sake, but for yours, so that you do not sin against the god by condemning me, his gift to you. You will not easily find one like me, who is like a gadfly adhering itself to the steed like the state, which needs to be stirred alive.
• The proof of me being sent by God is this: if I were like other men, I would not have ignored my own concerns and instead tended to yours. My poverty is a witness to this.
• You may wonder why I advise individuals, but not the state. I do so because of the sign that I've had since I was a child (which is the divinity that Meletus indicts) which forbade me from becoming a politician. I will give you evidence of what I say through my actions:
  • When I was a senator (the only political position I ever took), some tried to try generals in an illegal manner, which I voted to oppose. Orators threatened to impeach and arrest me, but I stood my ground.
  • Furthermore, in the days of the oligarchy of the Thirty, they commanded us to bring them Leon the Salaminian to put him to death, but I refused and went home, which may have lost me my life if the rule of the Thirty had continued.
• I would not have survived if I had led a public life. But I am consistent in my actions, and allow everyone to hear my while I pursue my mission. But I do not claim responsibility for if he turns out to be a good or bad man, for I never taught him anything. People like to hear me cross-examining the pretenders of wisdom —the duty of which bestowed onto me by the god. If there is anyone here whom I have corrupted in their youth, let them accuse me now.

Socrates ain't no wuss

This is all the defense which I have to offer. One more thing: I have a family and sons, yet unlike others I will not produce them here to petition for an acquittal. This would be demeaning (no better than a woman), unethical, and impious. Do not require me to do that which I believe to be impious, for I do believe that there are gods, and in a sense higher than that in which any of my accusers believe in them. And to you and the god I commit my cause.

Part 4: Socrates is convicted after a vote

I am not saddened nor surprised — only that the vote is so even. Meletus proposes the punishment of death. What do I propose? For a man who does good, some good reward should come to him. I propose maintenance in the Prytaneum².

• Why should I propose a penalty? Because I am afraid of death, when I do not know if death is good or evil? Should I propose imprisonment, and be enslaved? Or exile, and be driven out everywhere I go?
• You may say, can you not hold your tongue in these foreign cities?
• This would be a disobedience to the god. The unexamined life is not worth living.
• Let the fine be proportional to my means — I could afford thirty minae.

Part 5: Socrates is sentenced to death

Let me speak to those who sentenced me to death.

• You think that I was convicted because I had no words to procure my acquittal. Not so; the deficiency was not in my words. I do not repent the style of my defense. The difficulty is not in avoiding death, but unrighteousness, for that runs faster than death.
• I will give a prophecy: my murderers, far greater punishment will await you.

Friends who acquitted me, the divine oracle that has the habit of opposing me made no opposition today. Thus, what happened to me is a good, and death is not an evil.

• There is hope that death is a good. Either:
  • (1) death is a state of nothingness, like an undisturbed sleep, which is a good (for eternity is then only a single night), or
  • (2) there is a change of the soul from one world to another, and there would be nothing greater; to find the true judges and to speak with Orpheus and Homer and other heroes, and I will be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge.
• Know that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
• I have one favor to ask: when my sons grow up, trouble them if they seem to care about riches or anything but virtue, or if they pretend to be something when they are nothing.

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways--I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.