The Trial of Socrates (399 B.C.)

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The Trial of Socrates (399 B.C.)

• Lecturer Wu Shiyu
• Email shiyuw_at_sjtu.edu.cn
• http//sla.sjtu.edu.cn/bbs

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Introduction

• In 399 B.C., a trial, one of the most famous of
  all time, was in progress in Athens. The accused,
  Socrates, seventy years old, Athenian greatest
  thinker and teacher, was convicted and later on,
  executed.
• The specific charges against him guilty of
  impiety guilty of corrupting the young.

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Socrates

• That is what Socrates has been doing for years
  going around Athens, questioning and questioning
  everybody he could find What is justice? What
  is piety? What is right and wrong?

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Delphi Oracles Answer

• Socrates' friend Chaerephon consulted the oracle
  at Delphi, asking the question that if anyone was
  wiser than Socrates.
• The Oracle offered the answer that none was
  wiser.
• When Socrates was told this, he believed that
  what the Oracle had said was a paradox, because
  he believed he possessed no wisdom whatsoever.

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• And then he went around Athens, approaching men
  considered wise by the people, including
  statesmen, poets, and artisans, with the purpose
  of refuting the Oracle's answer.
• By this, however, Socrates realized that each man
  he questioned who thought he knew a great deal
  and was wise turned out, in fact, not wise at
  all.

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10. Delphi Oracles Answer

• Socrates then knew that the Oracle was right, in
  that while so-called wise men thought themselves
  wise and yet were not, he himself knew he was not
  wise at all which, paradoxically, made him the
  wiser one since he was the only person aware of
  his own ignorance.
• And the saying that I know that I know thing
  which is attributed to Socrates had become well
  known. And it is Socrates' paradoxical wisdom
  which made the prominent Athenians he publicly
  questioned appear foolish, became infuriated, and
  finally turned against him.

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• Then in 399 B.C., Anytus, a supporter of
  democracy who had suffered personally under the
  tyrants, with two other men Meletus, and Lycon of
  lesser prominence prosecuted Socrates. They
  accused Socrates of impiety and corrupting young
  men.
• Obviously, charges like these are especially
  difficult to prove, and equally difficult to
  refute. However, impiety ranked as an extremely
  serious crime because the gods were believed to
  punish the entire city-state if it harbored
  impious individuals.

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• By Athenian custom, Socrates trial took only one
  day. The jury consisted of 501 Athenian citizens.
  
• Instead of weeping, pleading, parading his
  children in front of the jury like the standard
  procedure in an Athenian courtroom, Socrates,
  according to Plato, took the position that the
  best defense was a strong offense.

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• Using the question-and-answer method for which he
  was famous and which had apparently gotten him
  into trouble, he defended for himself and also
  pointing out the inconsistencies in his accusers
  allegations. The following excerption is chosen
  from Platos Apology which showed Socrates
  denial of the charges against him (Handout)

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Platos Apology

• Meletus Let me ask you this, why dont you say
  all right, Socrates, we know these are
  trumped-up (??) charges, but we are tired of your
  going around and harassing us like this, arent
  you ashamed of living such a life that everybody
  in Athens hates you?
• Soc No, I am not ashamed. I took on this
  mission from God, and what would make me ashamed
  is if I stop doing it.

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• Well, I tell you well, Socrates. If you will
  stop doing it, we will drop these charges.
• I am not going to do that. I am going to
  continue. As long as I live, I am going to go
  around and question, and follow the truth
  wherever it is.

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• All right, Socrates, if you are so smart, why
  arent you in politics?
• Well, I am gonna tell you why. Because no honest
  man can survive in your democracy. It is so
  corrupt.

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• Now what you expect me to do at this stage is to
  bring in my wife and children. Thats standard in
  Athenian trial. You bring in your wife and
  children and you say, Look, if you put me to
  death, it is going to rob my family of all
  support, and the children are supposed to cry
  and the wife is supposed to cry, and you are thus
  humiliated. That is part of the purpose of the
  trial. You know that I am not going to bring them
  in. Yes, Ive got children and a wife, but I am
  not going to bring them in. That has nothing to
  do with the trial whatsoever. It is for you to
  make your decision. But I tell you this, I will
  continue my mission.

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• Nearly half the jury of 501 (280 to 221) Athenian
  citizens voted in favor of Socrates he seems to
  have lost his case by about thirty votes.
• Meletus, who was presiding over the trial, had
  proposed the penalty of death.
• Athenian procedure called for convicted
  defendants to recommend an alternative penalty,
  and it seems clear that Socrates accusers
  expected him to propose exile and would have
  been quite content to see him leave town.

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• However, Socrates claimed that he was in fact a
  public benefactor, suggesting first a reward for
  his benefactions (????) or then, a fine
  equivalent to about 13 kilos of silver.
• The jury, no doubt annoyed by this, elected the
  death penalty. Some of those who had earlier
  voted not guilty now turned against him by
  voting in favor of death penalty.

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• Socrates was first put in prison for at that
  season, the people were forced to wait for the
  return of the vessel before they could kill him.
• During this period, a small band of his pupils
  gathered around him in prison and some of them
  even arranged for everything for the masters
  escape.
• But Socrates refused, claiming that his whole
  life a search for absolute truths had been a
  preparation for death.

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• Socrates, we have arranged everything. You can
  escape, go to the city of Thebes, and there
  receive hospitality.
• And he says, I am not going to escape, I am
  going to stay right here. If I were to escape
  after having been found legally guilty, that
  would set a bad example. I am going to obey the
  law. And so the young people will not be
  corrupted by my example.

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• ????????????

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The Trial of Socrates
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• He has sent away his wife and children, and some
  of his students are weeping and he says the words
  I gave in an earlier lecture, I sent my wife
  away and now here you are, worse than women,
  weeping like this. Stop it! What is bad? I am
  going to die. My whole life has been a
  preparation for death, preparing myself so that
  my soul will be free.
• And the whole life of a philosopher, the search
  for wisdom is the preparation for death because
  wisdom is the understanding of absolute truths,
  of absolute justice, absolute harmony, absolute
  beauty, absolute honor, and the soul that has
  prepared itself will be united with God. And that
  is what I wait for.

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• In the words of Plato, such was the end of the
  man who, of all the men of our time, was the
  best, the wisest, and the most just.
• And Xenophon and Plato, by the words of their
  Apology, would hand down through history this
  condemnation of the Athenian democracy, which had
  put to death the best man of its age, who had
  fearlessly spoken out for truth and whose whole
  life was a living witness to the search for
  wisdom. The greatest of all the Athenians,
  Socrates, immortal, passing his legacy down.

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• In the end, Socrates was executed by one of the
  customary Athenian methods, being ordered to down
  a poisonous draft of hemlock.
• By the words of his Apology, Plato would hand
  down to posterity this condemnation of the
  Athenian democracy that had put to death the best
  man of that age, whose whole life had been a
  search for wisdom.

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  ??????????????????
• Platos Apology
• ???

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  ????????????????????????????????????????????,?????
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  ???????????

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• We place Socrates and his trial within the
  framework of Athenian democracy and the aftermath
  of the great war with Sparta.

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Introduction

• The trial is regarded as the most infamous
  episode in Athenian history in the aftermath of
  the Peloponnesian War.
• What caused such intensity of hatred as to put an
  old man on trial and for such severe charges?

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The Aftermath of the Peloponnesian War

• The Greek World
• engulfed the Greek world
• The Athenian Culture
• never regained the prosperity of its Golden
  Age
• The Trial of Socrates

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Oligarchy at Athens The Thirty Tyrants

• Lysander installed an oligarchic government
  consisting of thirty citizens from the wealthy
  elite.
• Only one or two were moderate people like
  Theramenes.
• They became known as the Thirty Tyrants for the
  brutal conduct.
• Brutally suppressed their opposition in Athens by
  forcing many Athenians into exile and throwing
  their leaders into jail. They even carried out a
  series of murders.

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The Thirty Tyrants

• The most terrifying figure of the Thirty was
  Critias
• One of the best pupils of Socrates and a relative
  of Plato.
• A passionate antidemocrat and a longtime admirer
  of the Spartan constitution.
• Critias brutally ordered murders by the hundreds
  without a qualm(?? ).
• He had the moderate Theramenes put to death
  simply because he was moderate and wealthy, and
  not on his side by forcing him to drink hemlock,
  the poison used soon afterwards to execute
  Socrates.

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The Thirty Tyrants

• Some Athenians were murdered because their
  political propositions, others were murdered
  simply because they were wealthy. Through these
  terrible activities, the Thirty Tyrants created
  an eight-month-long period of terror in Athens.
• Not all the victims were political enemies many
  were wealthy metics.

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• So violent and brutal that the Spartans did not
  interfere when a prodemocracy resistance movement
  finally came to power and ended the violence and
  brutality of the Thirty. Athenian people had
  Critias killed in a battle.
• The Athenians restored their democratic
  government, with bitter memory of divisiveness
  (??).

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Socrates

• An ancient Greek philosopher, who helped to shape
  Greek beliefs. The ideas he created are present
  in our culture today.
• Born in 470 B.C., grew up during the Golden Age
  of Athens, a time period when Greece was very
  powerful, lived in Athens.
• His father wanted him to become a sculptor

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Socrates
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2. Socrates

• At young age, Socrates searched for wisdom and
  truth.
• Show no interest in money, would allow groups of
  men to listen to him speak, never take money from
  them.
• Socrates would stand on a stoa while teaching
  others. Ruins of stone stoas can still be seen in
  Athens today.

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2. Socrates

• He has been a brave soldier, fought as an
  Athenian infantry man in major battles of the
  early Peloponnesian War when he was no longer
  young.
• He has a family his wife, Xanthippe, has sort of
  a reputation as a shrew he has children,

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• But mainly he seems to spend his time just
  walking around Athens, talking and questioning,
• He has a vigorous group of students who are
  devoted to him, people like Alcibiades and
  Critias.

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Socrates
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2. Socrates

• Socrates was known for being a bit strange. He
  went into a trance(?? )when he thought hard about
  a problem.
• He might stand still for days on end without
  moving, eating, or sleeping.
• Men in the city would gather around Socrates to
  watch him.
• Once he was finished thinking, he would snap out
  of his trance and go on as usual.

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3. Two Divergent Portraits of Socrates

• Socrates himself never wrote anything. We do not
  have many sources available representing a
  reasonable portrait of the real Socrates.
• Two divergent portraits of Socrates
  Aristophanes comedy The Clouds works of
  Socrates well-known pupils, Xenophon and Plato,
  whose lives were shaped by their teacher, and
  from Aristotle, father of the university, who was
  also influenced by the ideas of Socrates through
  his teacher, Plato.

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4. The Clouds by Aristophanes

• The Cloud produced in 423 B.C.
• Socrates could be a danger to Athenian
  traditional society gave Aristophanes the
  inspiration.
• Socrates is presented as a cynical sophist. For a
  fee, he offers instruction in his Thinking Shop
  to his pupils by using the Protagorean technique.
  

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4. The Clouds by Aristophanes

• Socrates is such a person who can make a good
  argument seem bad and a bad argument seem good.
• His pupils were taught how to argue effectively
  for any position, even an outrageously immoral
  one.
• A vivid scene presented in the comedy is the
  protagonists son, a Socrates pupil, argues
  against his father that a son has the right to
  beat his parents.

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5. First Source of Athenian Hostility to Socrates

• By attending Socrates Thinking Shop, the young
  men of Athens showed their disrespect for
  tradition and for their elders.
• This makes an indelible impression on the
  Athenians, especially the old generation. They
  felt that Socrates could be a danger to the
  conventional conception. Then the comedy ends by
  burning down Socrates Thinking Shop.
• Therefore, from the play, we can see one
  important source of Athenians hostility against
  Socrates. And elements of the legal charges made
  against him in 399 B.C. were already present in
  this comedy.

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6. The Portrait of Socrates from his pupils

• A totally different portrait from his pupils
  Plato, Xenophon, and Platos pupil, Aristotle,
  father of the university.
• Both Plato and Xenophon were in their late
  twenties at the time of Socrates trial.
• All of the three intellectual figures, Xenophon,
  Plato and Aristotle, were forever molded by what
  happened on a single day in the year of 399 B.C.

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• For Plato, Socrates trial and execution were the
  beginning of his whole intellectual pursuit of
  truth. Plato paid his great tributes to his
  teacher, Socrates, by putting his ideas into the
  mouth of Socrates (Platos Dialogues)

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7. Platos DialogueThe Euthyphro

• This dialogue presents vividly the man on trial.
  Socrates, who stops, instead of focusing his own
  trial in defense, is trying to help this man
  understand that he does not know that he is
  taking the gravest actions based on the thinking
  he was wise but in fact he is not.
• Socrates understood the first step in knowledge
  is to define words and that people frequently
  acts on the bias of what they think they know
  without ever pursuing.

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• And that is what Socrates has been doing for
  years, going around Athens, questioning and
  questioning everybody he could find What is
  justice? What is piety? What is right and
  wrong?

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8. Socratic Method

• Aristotle observed about Socrates that the two
  things could be attributed to him inductive
  reasoning and universal definition.
• Socrates believed that the best way to develop
  ideas was in the give and take of conversation,
  and the best way to educate people was to ask
  them a series of questions leading in a
  particular direction ( The Socratic Method).

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• Socrates never directly instructed his
  conversational partners instead, he led them to
  draw conclusions in response to his probing
  questions and refutations of their cherished but
  unexamined assumptions.

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Socratic Method
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5. Second Source of Athenian Hostility to Socrates

• This indirect method of searching for the truth
  often left Socrates conversational partners in a
  state of puzzlement and unhappiness. His Athenian
  citizens come be as puzzled and frustrated to him
  as Euthyphro did in the dialogue.
• They felt they were forced to believe and admit
  that they were ignorant of what they began by
  assuming they knew perfectly well and that the
  principles by which they lived there were unable
  to withstand close intellectual scrutiny.

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• And what makes it more annoying is Socrates
  failed to give a direct and an ultimate answer.
  This, like Aristophanes The Clouds, shows
  another source of Athenians hostility to
  Socrates.

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11. Third Source of Athenian Hostility to Socrates

• The third possible source of hostility concerns
  Socrates association with his two pupils,
  Alcibiades and Critias, and his remarks about
  democracy.
• For the Athenians, who believed their democracy
  was superior to the government of the Spartans,
  their defeat by the Spartans was incomprehensible
  and unacceptable, they were ready to find
  scapegoat (???).

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11. Third Source of Athenian Hostility to Socrates

• Alcibiades and Critias, Socrates two pupils, had
  done the most damage to the Athenian democracy.
  Both of them were Socrates best pupils and yet
  both of them were openly hostile to Athenian
  democracy. Alcibiades, one of Socrates most
  devoted followers, once commented at Sparta that
  democracy is acknowledged folly. In the eyes of
  Socrates Athenian critics, this must represent
  the teaching of Socrates.

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• Critias, another Socrates follower and the most
  notorious one of the Thirty Tyrants, had played a
  leading role in the murder and plunder in the
  violence and brutality by the Thirty-Tyrants. But
  both of them were already dead, only Socrates was
  available.

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11. The third possible source of hostility

• Socrates was also blamed for ever speaking
  sharply about democracy. Most people, he pointed
  out, arent terribly thoughtful or analytical, so
  why should most people, that is, the majority,
  make the life and death decisions that affect the
  polis?

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11. The third possible source of hostility

• In fact, as other scholars have proposed, it is
  hard to determine whether Socrates really opposed
  democracy for Socrates enjoyed puncturing
  illusions, and it may be that had he lived under
  a monarchy or an oligarchy, those would have been
  the governments he spent his time undermining.
• But combined with his association with Alcibiades
  and Critias, however, his pointed remarks about
  the foibles of democracy seemed downright
  unpatriotic, and he could easily enough be cast
  as purveyor (???) of dangerous ideas.

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12. The Fourth source of Athenians hostility

• Another possible source of Athenians hostility
  is that Socrates held unusual views on religion.
  He made several references to his personal
  spirit, although he explicitly claimed that it
  never urged him on, but only warned him against
  various prospective events. Many of his
  contemporaries were suspicious of Socrates's
  daimonion as a rejection of the state religion.
  It is generally understood that Socrates's
  daimonion is akin to intuition.
• Moreover, Socrates claimed that the concept of
  goodness, instead of being determined by what the
  gods wanted, actually precedes the entire
  business of deities. Many Athenians blame that
  the act of desecration of of the images of a god
  was at least partly responsible for the Athenian
  defeat in Sicily.

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• From Platos Dialogues, we can see that Socrates
  had a keen wit and an engaging personality. And
  for this, pupils flocked to him eagerly, like
  Plato and Xenophon. But he had nothing that could
  be called a school. And Socrates was poor for his
  refusal to charge fees and therefore, he was not
  a sophist. His goal was to inculcate moral
  excellence. Like the sophists, however, he used
  clever arguments and subjected conventional
  notions to rational analysis.

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Quotations from Socrates

• By means of beauty all beautiful things become
  beautiful.
• For this appears to me the safest answer to give
  both to myself and others and adhering to this,
  I think that I shall never fall, but that it is a
  safe answer both for me and any one else to give
  that by means of beauty beautiful things become
  beautiful

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Quotations from Socrates

• False words are not only evil in themselves, but
  they infect the soul with evil.
• In every one of us there are two ruling and
  directing principles, whose guidance we follow
  wherever they may lead the one being an innate
  desire of pleasure the other, an acquired
  judgment which aspires after excellence.

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Quotations from Socrates

• As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.
• For when I don't know what justice is, I'll
  hardly know whether it is a kind of virtue or
  not, or whether a person who has it is happy or
  unhappy.

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Quotations from Socrates

• The unexamined life is not worth living for a
  human being.
• I do nothing but go about persuading you all,
  old and young alike, not to take thought for your
  persons or your properties, but and chiefly to
  care about the greatest improvement of the soul.
  I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but
  that from virtue comes money and every other good
  of man, public as well as private. This is my
  teaching, and if this is the doctrine which
  corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person.

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Thank You!