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Reading group for complete beginners: Plato’s Apology, slowly, in three sittings

Giulia Ferrante Fellow
· 6 replies · 234 views
Virtue & characterGreek & RomanPlatonismPlatoSocrates#apology#beginners#reading-group#socratic-method
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Several newcomers have asked where to start, and my answer is always the same: Plato's Apology. It's short (an evening's reading), it's a real trial (Athens, 399 BCE), and it's the founding scene of philosophy as a way of life. Socrates, accused of corrupting the young and not believing in the city's gods, defends not only himself but the practice of questioning everything.

This group is for people who have never read Plato. No question is too basic.

Translation: G. M. A. Grube's, in the Hackett volume The Trial and Death of Socrates, is clear and cheap. Benjamin Jowett's older translation is free online and fine, if a little Victorian. The numbers in the margins (17a, 24b…) are Stephanus pages, which every edition uses, so we can all find the same passage.

Plan

  • Sitting 1 (17a–24b): Socrates answers his ‘old accusers’, explains the oracle that said no one was wiser than him, and how he went about testing it.
  • Sitting 2 (24b–35d): he cross-examines Meletus, calls himself a gadfly, and talks about his inner divine sign.
  • Sitting 3 (35e–42a): the verdict, his proposed ‘penalty’, the sentence, and his last words about death.

For each sitting, post one thing that surprised you and one thing you'd say back to Socrates.

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6 replies

  1. Serkan Aydoğdu

    Contributor

    Sitting 1. I was surprised he's so funny. He says he's not a clever speaker, then gives the cleverest speech. And the oracle story: he thinks the god must be wrong, so he goes around testing people, and finds that the ones who think they know are worse off than him, because he at least knows he doesn't know. What I'd say back: some of those craftsmen did know things. You'd be annoyed too if a man stopped your bus to tell you that.

    Helpful · 2
  2. Akosua Mensah

    Contributor

    Sitting 1. What surprised me is how much he cares about his reputation, for a man who says he doesn't care. He spends pages on the old rumours about him. In my village we'd say: the one who keeps explaining he is not a thief makes people count their chickens.

    Helpful · 3
  3. Fajar Nugroho

    Contributor

    Sitting 2. The cross-examination of Meletus felt like a trap, and Meletus walks into it. Surprised: Socrates argues no one corrupts people on purpose, because it would harm the corrupter too. What I'd say back: people do harm others knowing it will come back to them. Al-Ghazālī would say the soul's diseases blind it to its own good, which is a bit like Socrates, but more worried.

  4. Gerrit Venter

    Contributor

    Sitting 2. The gadfly passage. Thirty years coaching boys taught me that the one who keeps asking ‘why?’ is either the best player or the most exhausting one, and usually both. What I'd say back: Athens didn't need fewer gadflies, it needed better answers.

    Helpful · 1
  5. Brian Otieno Ouma

    Contributor

    Sitting 3. I've read this with my prison class, so I'll only add what they said: the line about the unexamined life lands differently when you have years to examine yours. And his last words, that it's unclear whether death or life is better, ‘except to the god’, silenced the whole room. Surprised: how calm he is. What I'd say back: I'm not sure calm is the right response to an unjust sentence. But I've no better one.

    Helpful · 2
  6. Giulia Ferrante

    Fellow

    Thank you all. Serkan's bus, Akosua's chickens and Gerrit's gadfly will be in my lessons for years. Next: the Crito, where Socrates explains why he won't escape. Bring your objections.

    Helpful · 3