THE EXAMINED LIFE

The Examined Life

The Examined Life

It is best to begin by asking why the Athenians convicted Socrates. Our evidence from the trial comes almost exclusively from Plato (c. 429-347 BC) in his Apologia of Socrates, which literally meant in Greek 'defence speech'. Plato's Apology describes the charges and the accusers, gives the results of the two votes taken (the first to decide guilt, the second to decide the punishment), and gives a version of the two defence speeches given by Socrates. That this was a version is made very likely by the existence of a rival Apology by Xenophon (c. 428-354 BC), which agrees with Plato about the charges and accusers and some elements in Socrates' speech, but not others. We know that writing Socrates' 'apology' became a popular literary pastime after his death, so that Plato's version of it cannot be taken to be (or perhaps even to have been intended as) a verbatim transcription; on the other hand, it is the most extensive source we have and is generally trusted with regard to the nature of, the charges and the results of the votes.

Sense of paternal, religious and civic subversion is also expressed in the third allegation of 'corrupting the young'. But there was an explosive political dimension here. Five years before the trial in 399, Athens had lost the Peloponnesian War, and the victorious Spartans had encouraged a bloody oligarchical coup led by the Thirty Tyrants who had briefly seized control of Athens. They had killed, exiled and expropriated thousands until democratic loyalists succeeded in re-conquering the city and re-establishing its democratic regime. (Grote, p.15-19) Two of the Thirty, Charmides and Critias, were close friends of Socrates. Charmides, who was Plato's uncle, features in one of his nephew's Socratic dialogues. Moreover, the most notorious traitor of the ...