Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Preliminaries: reading Plato
- THE DIALOGUES
- Introduction: The simile of the cave in the Republic
- 1 The Apology: Socrates' defence, Plato's manifesto
- 2 The Phaedo: Socrates' defence continued
- 3 ‘Examining myself and others’, I: knowledge and soul in Charmides, First Alcibiades, Meno, Republic, Euthyphro, Phaedrus
- 4 The moral psychology of the Gorgias
- 5 ‘Examining myself and others’, II: soul, the excellences and the ‘longer road’ in the Republic
- Appendix to Chapter 5: Socrates vs Thrasymachus in Republic I
- Interlude: A schedule of the genuine dialogues
- 6 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, I: knowledge and belief in Book v
- 7 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, II: the limits of knowledge
- 8 The Theaetetus, and the preferred Socratic–Platonic account of knowledge
- 9 The form of the good and the good: the Republic in conversation with other (‘pre-Republic’) dialogues
- 10 Republic and Timaeus: the status of Timaeus' account of the physical universe
- 11 Plato on the art of writing and speaking (logoi): the Phaedrus
- Epilogue: What is Platonism?
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - The Apology: Socrates' defence, Plato's manifesto
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Preliminaries: reading Plato
- THE DIALOGUES
- Introduction: The simile of the cave in the Republic
- 1 The Apology: Socrates' defence, Plato's manifesto
- 2 The Phaedo: Socrates' defence continued
- 3 ‘Examining myself and others’, I: knowledge and soul in Charmides, First Alcibiades, Meno, Republic, Euthyphro, Phaedrus
- 4 The moral psychology of the Gorgias
- 5 ‘Examining myself and others’, II: soul, the excellences and the ‘longer road’ in the Republic
- Appendix to Chapter 5: Socrates vs Thrasymachus in Republic I
- Interlude: A schedule of the genuine dialogues
- 6 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, I: knowledge and belief in Book v
- 7 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, II: the limits of knowledge
- 8 The Theaetetus, and the preferred Socratic–Platonic account of knowledge
- 9 The form of the good and the good: the Republic in conversation with other (‘pre-Republic’) dialogues
- 10 Republic and Timaeus: the status of Timaeus' account of the physical universe
- 11 Plato on the art of writing and speaking (logoi): the Phaedrus
- Epilogue: What is Platonism?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Apology, or Socrates' Defence, pretends to be the speech, or rather speeches, that Socrates gave at his trial on a charge of ‘doing what is unjust by corrupting the young and not believing in gods the city believes in but other new divine entities’ (Apology 24b8–c1). The main proposal of the present chapter is that even as Plato has Socrates defend his way of life to the jury, he, Plato, is also issuing a kind of manifesto on his own behalf, which tells his readers – in the broadest terms – about his fundamental concerns and aims. (There are no chronological implications to this proposal; Plato might have written the Apology at any time during that relatively early part of his career in which the stylometrists place it.) However the route to this destination will be a fairly circuitous one.
‘NOT EXCELLENCE FROM MONEY, BUT FROM EXCELLENCE MONEY …’
Near the end of the Apology, Socrates explains to the 501 members of the jury that even in the unlikely event that they should propose to let him go free on condition that he stopped philosophizing and corrupting their sons, he wouldn't stop. He'd go on saying what he always says, to anyone he meets:
My good man, when you're an Athenian, belonging to the greatest city and the one with the highest reputation for wisdom (sophia) and strength (ischus), aren't you ashamed to be caring about how to get as much money, and as much reputation and honour, as you can, while as for getting as much good sense (phronēsis) and truth as you can, and getting your soul into the best condition, that you don't care about, and don't give any thought to?
(Apology 29d7–e2)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing , pp. 66 - 95Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007