Apology

by Plato

This confounded Socrates, they say; this villainous misleader of youth!—and then if somebody asks them, Why, what evil does he practise or teach? they do not know, and cannot tell; but in order that they may not appear to be at a loss, they repeat the ready-made charges which are used against all philosophers about teaching things up in the clouds and under the earth, and having no gods, and making the worse appear the better cause; for they do not like to confess that their pretence of knowledge has been detected—which is the truth; and as they are numerous and ambitious and energetic, and are drawn up in battle array and have persuasive tongues, they have filled your ears with their loud and inveterate calumnies.

While written by Plato, with uncertainty concerning the validity of the statement on Socrates’s behalf, “Apology” represents an acute denial of the oligarch; whose means are compared to that of a potential Hobbesian-Greek political body, without the branches the Western world relies on. Here we see the Leviathan that is the Greek city-state of Athens—Having once been a democratic state in the life of Socrates—upholding its purpose as a government to produce a working system with theocratic hierarchies ruled by those who have garnered political; militaristic; economic; and religious power. Socrates was a cog in the machine and he was treated as such; with a respectable defiance to that which does not do him any good or evil, for death is not a punishment unto him.

They are headed by Meletus, that good man and true lover of his country, as he calls himself.

These sort of ironic bits are sprinkled throughout Plato’s Socratic verses. If they are true mirrors of the philosopher in writing, then we are lucky to have a glimpse at the diuturnity of Socrates’s personality.

For I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul.

Becoming similar to that of the Demi-gods and heroes that Socrates periodically uses as examples?

For I am in want, and he has enough; and he only gives you the appearance of happiness, and I give you the reality.

Complete honesty in a person is a rarity—and in many cases, lost to antiquity—such a trait should be sought out.