Platos Apology

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Platos Apology

• The Philosopher as Comic Hero

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Genre of Platos Apology

• Philosophical Dialogue
• 24-27 Socrates and Meletus
• Not only, as Robert M. Cumming (xi) suggests, the
  shouts of the crowd.

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Genre of Platos Apology

• apologia defence speech at two levels
• Socratess defence of himself
• Platos defence of Socrates

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Genre of Platos Apology

• Is Socratess defence speech historically
  reliable or plausible?
• No the construction of this text shows artistic
  arrangement.

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Genre of Platos Apology

• Is Socratess defence speech historically
  reliable or plausible?
• Yes persons in court would have read Apology

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Thesis

• Socratess Apollo Mission
• Socrates obeys, and thereby performs service to,
  Apollo, the god of wisdom, in examining himself
  and others with the aim of achieving the
  excellence (arete) of self-knowledge beginning
  with the realization that divine wisdom lies
  beyond human wisdom and thereby concludes the
  investigation of the question, What is the
  pious?, begun, but not concluded, in The
  Euthyphro.

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• Wisdom literature and Prophetic Literature
• Chaerophons Question to the Pythia, Oracle
• Is there anyone wiser than Socrates?No
• Motto at Delphi Know yourself
• Socratess Response
• Interprets No as a command to investigate

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• Conclusion Anyone, like Socrates (23)
• Other Wise Men Buddha
• Cassandra, Apollos prophet (Agamemnon)

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Comedy and Inclusio
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Comedy and InclusioMark
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Tragedy and Inclusio
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Comedy and Inclusio

• Perhaps someone will say, Are you not ashamed,
  Socrates, of leading a life which is very likely
  now to cause your death? I should answer him
  with justice and say. (28)

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Defining Piety

• CS Ideological Criticism
• my service to the god
• Huperesia service (30)

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Defining Piety

• 5Piety is a kind of service to the gods.

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Defining Piety

• Content of Socrates teaching
• One should care first for the improvement of the
  soul
• Excellence (arête) concerns the soul, not the body

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Tentative Conclusion

• The prophetic tradition has an optimistic view
  about human beings, that they have the potential
  for self-realization

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• Stephen H. Ford
• Humanities 111o 9.0
• 1977, 2007, 2008
• Socratess View of Death in Apology
• 40-42
• I argue that Socrates presents three reasons in
  Apology 40-42 to refute the supposal that death
  is the supreme evil and to establish his claim
  that death is a good thing because he draws this
  conclusion in three ways first, the conclusion
  explains why his

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• prophetic guide did not oppose as unjust
  any of his actions leading to his death second,
  it is the conclusion of a deductively valid
  argument of the constructive dilemma pattern
  based upon an analysis of death (it is also a
  reductio ad absurdum of the supposal that death
  is the supreme evil) third, it is inferred from
  a general statement concerning evil.

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• The first reason is that death as a
  good would give a satisfying explanation why the
  prophetic guide did not prevent Socrates from
  leaving home and speaking in his defence
  (apologia) in court, although it has often
  stopped me in the very act of speaking (40). The
  guides silence is Socratess clear proof (40)
  that it is a mistake to suppose that death is an
  evil. Since good and evil are assumed to be
  opposites that

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• is, mutually exclusive, then death is a
  good.
• The second reason is of a different
  kind and is explicitly so introduced by the
  phrase, and if we reflect in another way (40).
  The argument is a constructive dilemma

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• (1) If death is a cessation of being, then
  death is a good
• (2) If death is a journey to a just world,
  then death is a good.
• (3) Either death is a cessation of being or
  a journey to a just world.
• (4) Therefore, death is a good
• (40-41).

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• Because of the first reason, Socrates
  does not have to worry about punishment in the
  next life.
• The third reason is enunciated by
  Socrates as a general statement this one
  truth no evil can happen to a good man, either
  in life or after death (41). He infers that,
  since death does happen to good men, then it
  cannot be an evil for them. The prophetic guide
  reason would justify Socrates thinking of
  himself as good.

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• Socrates, therefore, offers three
  distinct reasons for his view that death is a
  good, and not a supreme evil religious
  experience, deductive argument, and an
  instantiation of a general moral truth.