Category: Writers Block
In the apology socrates is on trial for impiety he is defending himself against his accusers. meanwhile he explains what is the definition of piety and what service to the gods is, and how he has tried to fulfill it. He deems that he is doing the right service to the gods and that it is pious contrary to what his accusers accuse him of, as he is doing what is pious, which happened to offend many. As he claims in order to be servicing the gods correctly, “I thought I must attach the greatest importance to what pertained to the god. So, in seeking what the oracle meant, I had to go to all those with any reputation for knowledge.” (158). He also thought he could prove the oracle wrong because it had listed him as the wisest man and he didn’t think that was true, so he thought it was his job to prove the oracle wrong, so as he explained in his defense that to do this, “I proceeded to examine it in the following sort of way. I approached one of the people thought to be wise, assuming that in his company, if anywhere, I could refute the pronouncement and say to the oracle, "Here's someone wiser than I, yet you said I was wisest.” (158). He had talked to many in the city politicians, poets, and others to challenge the idea that he was the wisest man, and he discovered that he was, but in a very few ways. The one distinct difference he noticed was this that “it seems that I'm wiser than he in just this one small way: that what I don't know, I don't think I know” (158). But he still felt that the gods were somehow wrong still and to be pious it was good to keep challenging that assertion of theirs. So he claims that up to the day of his trial, “I continue to investigate these things and to examine, in response to the god, any person, citizen, or foreigner I believe to be wise” (159). Partly this was to help them because they thought they were so wise when in fact they knew very little. Socrates thought it was better to admit when he didn’t know something. And because the world around him seemed as if most of the people seemed more pretentious then they were really, Socrates decided to settle for who he was presently.. He reasoned with himself, by “I asked myself on behalf of the oracle whether I'd prefer to be as I am, not in any way wise with their wisdom nor ignorant with their ignorance, or to have both qualities as they did. And the answer I gave to myself, and to the oracle, was that it profited me more to be just the way I was” (159). He then claims in his defense speech that he could not do anything else and that philosophy was his duty and that it was to serve the gods well that he must do it, he argued that they could not persuade him to do that because if he had let them it would have meant he would have done something impious. he argues with the analogy of war and other such things then he reasons that philosophy was his post in life from the gods, so in that case, “if, when the god stationed me here, as I became thoroughly
convinced he did, to live practicing philosophy, examining myself and
others, I had-for fear of death or anything else-abandoned my station.
That would have been scandalous, and someone might have rightly and
justly brought me to court for not acknowledging that gods exist, by
disobeying the oracle, fearing death, and thinking I was wise when I
wasn't.” (165). In doing this he says staying here is obeying the gods and that’s important and that the gods was more just and right then humans were. So he wasn’t going to listen to them and let them ruin his life, and not obey the gods in heaven so to be impious. He claims persistently and firmly, “I'll obey the god rather than you, and as long as I draw breath and am able, I won't give up practicing philosophy, exhorting you and also showing the way to any of you I ever happen to meet, saying just the sorts of things I'm accustomed to say” (166). He talks about justice in this way. He claims we need to be just because it is pure and glorious, and then he continues by saying, “To act unjustly, on the other hand, to disobey someone better than oneself, whether god or man, that I do know to be bad and shameful.” (166). He thinks and knows that he’s doing a great thing for them, and they don’t know and they are accusing him and not being grateful. They also deem him bothersome and that by going around he has corrupted the young, but he claims in fact it is a good thing “And I believe that no greater good for you has ever come about in the city than my service to the god. You see, I do nothing else except go around trying to persuade you, both young and old
alike, not to care about your bodies or your money as intensely as about b
how your soul may be in the best possible condition. I say,
It's not from wealth that virtue comes, but from virtue comes
money, and all the other things that are good for human beings” (166-167). In fact by doing this great service to the gods in helping them and going around to help people with philosophy it has not earned him money or benefited him at all. In being pious he claims it has made him rather poor. He could ave disobeyed the gods and not have been pious but “rather, I live in extreme poverty because of my service to the god” (160). Because of this, he is not benefiting from money and he does it because he wants to only and because he wants to be pious and serve the gods most justly. His dedication keeps him to it, and also the city, and his commitment to it. He describes what he does and how this is selfless and truly pious and how he serves the gods. He states that “for me to have neglected all my own affairs and to have
put up with this neglect of my domestic life for so many years now, but
always to have minded your business, by visiting each of you in private, like a father or elder brother, to persuade you to care about virtue” (167-168). He argues that for this dedication to happen, the gods have placed him there for a purpose and made him to be loyal to the city, so he must stay there, so he does this. He states the reason for it and he says he is placed there by the gods to be a “gadfly, it seems to me, that the god has attached me to the city-one that
awakens, cajoles, and reproaches each and every one of you and never
stops alighting everywhere on you the whole day” (167). Then he addresses the argument of if you do it so privately why not do it publically and try to change things in stead of corrupt people? He states that would not be what the gods have ordered him to do at all and that talking to citizens privately was what “In my case, however, it's something, you may take it from me, I've been ordered to do by the god, in both oracles and dreams, and in every other way that divine providence ever ordered any man to do anything at all.” (170). Otherwise if he does not do this then it would not be pious or serv the gods well, and to be just as he has stated is to serve them. He goes on to state that people might tell him that minding his own business and not correcting people, cross-examining them, or questioning them would be much more pious and in this way it would serve the gods better, but he states firmly that is in fact what the gods told him not to do, and he tells the court, “if I say that to do that would be to disobey the god, and that this is
why I can't mind my own business” (174). He lastly argues for his death, and how it would not be so bad after all against the argument of why dying is awful. Most people fear death and he claims that he rather die, because the Gods has not stopped him, as he states, “it's clear to me that to die now and escape my troubles was a better thing
for me. It was for this very reason that my sign never opposed me.” (178).