Great Speeches: Socrates "In His Own Defense"

Socrates in his own

defense

399 BC. C. from Plato's Apology of Socrates translated by Henry Carry. This speech was delivered by Socrates before his accusers, who accused him of corrupting the youth of Athens and of believing in new supernatural deities outside of the later recognized gods of the state. his

defense

was found guilty and sentenced to death I do not know O Athenians To what extent you have been influenced by My accusers For my part in listening to them I almost forgot myself so plausible were their arguments, so to speak, they have said Nothing true but Of the many falsehoods they have told, I marveled at one of them, especially the one in which they said that you should be on your guard so as not to be fooled by being eloquent in your speech, because they are not ashamed to get ahead with the condemned. for me, in fact, when I must prove that I am in no way eloquent, this seemed to me the most shameless thing in them, unless they call eloquent one who tells the truth, because if they want to say this, then I would admit that I am an orator . but not in their own way because they, as I affirm, have not said anything true except about me.

You will hear the whole truth, not the arguments of the Athenians as elaborate as theirs with chosen or embellished phrases and expressions, but you will hear a speech delivered without premeditation in such Words like First are presented because I am sure that what I say will be fair and none of you expect otherwise because it will surely not become my time of the Life to Come before for you as a young man with a speech elevated above all things. I beg and implore you, O Athenians, if you hear me defend myself in the same language in which I usually speak, both in the Forum, at the counters where many of you have heard me, and in other places, do not be surprised or surprised. worry For this reason, the fact is that I am now appearing before a Court of Justice for the first time, although I am over 70 years old.

Therefore, I am completely a stranger to the language. Here as then, if I were really a stranger, they would have forgiven me. I spoke the language and the way I was educated, so now I ask you this as an act of justice, since I seem to ignore the form of my speech because maybe it can be something worse and maybe better and consider it. Only this and pay attention to this whether he speaks What is fair or not This is the virtue of a judge but of an orator to speak The truth perhaps however Someone can say Are you not ashamed, Socrates, to have carried out a study from which You are now in danger of dying before such a person.

I must answer with good reason, you don't say Good friend. If you think that a man who is even of lesser value should take into account the risk of life and death and should not consider that alone when performing any action, whether he is acting justly or unjustly and whether it is the role of a good man or bad, then I should act strangely, Athenian, if when the generals you chose to command me assigned me my position in Potidia. In the Amphopolis In Delium then I stayed where I was posted like any other person and encountered the danger of death, but when the deity, as I thought and believed, assigned me as my duty to spend my life in the study of philosophy and in the examination of myself and others.

On that occasion, for fear of death or anything else, I would abandon my position. Indeed, it would be strange and then, indeed, anyone could take me to court and accuse me of not believing in the gods, of disobeying the Oracle, for fear of death and thinking of myself. Being wise when I am not there to fear death, oh Athenians, is nothing other than appearing wise without being wise, for it is pretending to know what one does not know, because no one knows it, but that death is the

great

est of all goods. . but men fear as if they knew well that it is the

great

est of evils, and how is this the most reprehensible ignorance to think that one knows what one does not know?

But I, O Athenians, in this perhaps I differ from the majority of men and if I knew how to say that I am wiser than another in something it would be in this that not having a competent knowledge of the things in Hades I also think that I do not I have no such knowledge but to act unjustly and disobey my superior with God or man, I know that it is Therefore, I will never fear or shun the evil and vile things which I know can be good rather than the evils which I know to be evils, of so that even if you now dismissed me without yielding to the behest of anatus, who said that or not I should appear. here or that if I appeared it would be impossible not to kill myself by telling you that if I escaped from your children studying what Socrates teaches, everything would be completely corrupted.

If you were to address me thus, Socrates, we will not now yield to the anitus, but However, I dismiss you on this condition that you no longer persevere in your researches or study philosophy and if in the future you are discovered doing so, you will die if, as I said, say goodbye to me in these terms, I must tell you, oh Athenians! I honor you and I love you, but I will obey God before you and as long as I breathe and can I will not stop studying philosophy and exhorting and warning you. Any of you I meet could tell you how I'm used to doing it.

Oh, the best! Men, seeing that you are an Athenian from a city most powerful and renowned for its wisdom and strength, are you not ashamed to be careful with riches? How can you acquire them in greater abundance and for glory and honor? But don't worry or think about wisdom. and the truth and for your soul how it can be made more perfect and if any of you should question my statement and claim to care about these things, I will not let him go or depart at once, but I will question him, examine him and test him.

And if it seems to me that you do not possess virtue but you pretend that you do, I will reproach you for giving the lowest value to things of greatest value, but the highest value to things that have no value, do not murmur, Athenians, but continue attending. to my request not to murmur about what I say but to listen because I believe that you will benefit from listening because I am going to tell you other things at which you may raise an outcry but by no means do so. Rest assured. So if you kill me being a man like I say I am, you will not harm me more than yourselves because neither we nor Anitus will harm me nor do they have the power because I do not think it is possible for a better man. being hurt by something worse, I may perhaps be condemned to death or banished or deprived of civil rights and he or others may perhaps regard them as powerful evils.

However, I do not consider them so, but it is much more important to do what he Now, Athenians, I am far from making a defense on my own behalf, as anyone might think, but I do it on your behalf, so that by condemning me you will not do not offend at all regarding the deity's gift to you, for if you kill me, you will not easily find another such, although it may be ridiculous to say that the deity is as completely attached to this city as to a powerful and generous horse, something slow for its size. and requiring to be awakened by a gadfly so that the deity seems to have united me being a person as I am to the city so that he can awaken you and persuade and rebuke each of you and never stop harassing you all day long.

The Athenians will not be easily found, therefore, if you follow my advice, you will forgive me, but perhaps, irritated like drowsy people waking up from sleep, you will beat me and, yielding to the anatus, without thinking, you will condemn me to death and then pass The Rest of your life in the dream, unless the deity that cares for you sends you to someone else, but that I am a person who has been given by the deity to this city, you can discern from here because it is not like ordinary behavior of the men who should have neglected all my own affairs and suffered my private interests to be neglected for so many years and should constantly attend to your concerns, addressing each of you separately like a father or an elder brother persuading you to the pursuit of virtue and If I had derived some benefit from this course and received payment for my exhortations, there would have been some reason for my conduct, but now you see that My accusers, who have so blatantly slandered Me in everything else, have not had the nerve to accuse me. with this and bring witnesses to prove that I ever obtained or demanded any reward and I believe that I present sufficient proof that I speak the truth, that is, my poverty, perhaps, however, it may seem absurd that I act in this way to advise you in private and do I am busy but I never dare to appear in public before their assemblies and give advice to the city.

The cause of this is what you have often heard me mention in many places because I am moved by a certain divine and spiritual influence that also mitus through The mockery has been exposed in the accusation that began with me since childhood being a kind of voice that when it is present it always diverts me from what I am about to do but never urges me to do it. It is the one who opposes my meddling in public policy and seems to have very appropriately opposed me for be sure, O Athenians, if I had tried to meddle in politics long ago, I would have perished long ago and should not have benefited. not at all to you or to me, and do not be angry with me for telling the truth.

It is not possible for any man to be safe who sincerely opposes you or any other crowd and prevents many unjust and illegal actions from being committed in a city, but it is necessary for him who seriously fights for justice if he wants to be safe. but for a short time I should live in private and take no part in public affairs. Do you think then that I would have survived so many years if I had involved myself in public affairs and acted as befits a good man, would I have helped the Cause of Justice and how did I do it?

He should have considered this of the greatest importance away from the Athenians, nor would any other man have done so. But if throughout my life I have done something in public, I will be a man and the same man in private who has done something in public. I never made a concession to anyone contrary to justice or to any other or to any of these whom my slanderers say are my disciples. However, I was never anyone's tutor unless someone wanted to hear me speak and see me busy with my business. mission, whether young or old, I never rejected it nor do I speak when I receive money and not when I receive nothing, but I allow both rich and poor to question me and, if anyone wishes, answer me and listen to what I say.

I have to say and for these, whether anyone proves to be a good man or not, I cannot be fairly responsible because I never promise them any instruction or teach them at all, but if anyone says that they ever learned or heard anything from me in private. that everyone else hasn't heard. Oh Athenians. I have told you the whole truth. They delight in listening carefully to those they interrogate what they think. who are wise but are not. This is in no way unpleasant because of this duty, as I say, which has been ordained to me by the deity by oracles, dreams, and by every way by which any other divine decree has ever commanded man to do this. things, O Athenians, are true and easily refuted if they are not true, for if I am now corrupting some of the young men and have already corrupted others, surely it would be appropriate that if any of them, having become advanced in life, I would have discovered that I gave them bad advice when they were young.

Now they should rise up against me, accuse me and have me punished or, if they themselves were not willing to do this, some of their relatives, their parents, brothers or other relatives, if their relatives have ever suffered any harm from me, Now they should call him. However, there are many of them present here that I see. I could mention many to you, some of whom certainly malitus should have adduced in his witness speech if he later forgot to do so. So let him now introduce them. I give them to you. Let him say it if he has something to claim, but quite the opposite.

You will find, O Athenians, all willing to help me, who have corrupted and harmed their relatives, as malitus and anatus say of those who have themselves been corrupt may perhaps have some reason to help me but those who have not been corrupt Men already advanced In life, his relatives, what other reason can they have to help me but the fair and just reason that they know that Malitus speaks lies and that I speak? The truth Well, then Athenians, these are more or less the things I have to say in my defense and others perhaps of the same kind, perhaps, however, some among you will be indignant when remembering your own case if you were involved in a cause much less than this.

He implored and pleaded with the judges with many tears, presenting his children so that he might awaken their greatest compassion and many others of his relatives and friends, while I do none of these things, although it may seem that I am incurring extreme danger. , maybe that's why someone. Realizing this, he may become more determined against me and become enraged at this very behavior of mine. You may cast your vote under the influence of anger if any of you are thus affected. However, I don't suppose there is, but there should be. I think I can reasonably tell you that I too, O best of men, have relatives to make use of that saying of H.

I was not born of an oak nor of a rock, but of men, so that I too, the Athenians ,I have relatives and three children, one now. However, I am now an adult and two children, I will not introduce either of them and implore them to make me wrong. Why then will I not do this, not because of Athenian contumacy or lack of respect for you? Whether or not I am undaunted by the prospect of death is another question. but out of respect for my character, his character, and that of the entire city, it does not seem honorable for me to do something of this kind at my age and with the reputation I have, whether true or false.

It is commonly accepted that Socrates excels in some aspects to the generality of men, if then those among you who seem to excel in wisdom, strength or any other virtue act in the way that I have often seen some when they have been brought to trial it would be shameful Who, pretending to be something, have behaved in in a surprising way, thinking that they would suffer something terrible when they died and as if they were immortal, if they were not killed. It seems to me that these men bring dishonor. over the city, so that any stranger might suppose that those Athenians who excel in virtue, and whom they elect in preference to themselves to magistracies and other honors, are in no way superior to women in these things.

Oh, Athenians, neither should We who! You have not reached any level of reputation and We should not, you should suffer Us, but you should make it clear that you would rather condemn the one who introduces these lousy dramas and makes the city ridiculous than the one who calmly awaits your decision, but the reputation is apart. O Athenians, it does not seem right to me to beseech a judge or to escape by supplication, but he must be informed and persuaded, for a judge does not sit to administer justice in unfavorable circumstances, but to be able to judge correctly, and he has sworn not to show favor to whomever he pleases. but will decide according to the laws, therefore it is correct that neither we nor you get used to violating your oaths because by doing so none of us would act righteously. then, O Athena, I must adopt towards you a conduct that I do not consider honorable, nor just, nor holy, nor by Jupiter on any other occasion and especially now, when this malitus accuses me of impiety, clearly, if I persuaded you and by My supplications I should impose a restriction on You, who are bound by an oath, I should teach you to think that there are no Gods and, in fact, while making My Defense I should accuse Me of not believing in The Gods.

However, this is far from the case. for I believe, O Athenians, like none of my accusers and I leave it to you and the deity to judge about me in the way that is best for me and for you.