(Crito) Therefore, faithful to his teaching of civic obedience to the law, the 70-year-old Socrates executed his death sentence and drank the hemlock, as condemned at trial. Besides The Clouds, the comic play The Wasps (422 BC) also depicts inter-generational conflict, between an older man and a young man. While Socrates did not obey this order, he did nothing to warn Leon, who was subsequently apprehended by the other four men.[15]. Having been found guilty of corruption and impiety, Socrates and the prosecutor suggested sentences for the punishment of his crimes against the city-state of Athens. Despite Socrates denying he had any relation with the Sophists, the playwright indicates that Athenians associated the philosophic teachings of Socrates with Sophism. "During a time of war, and great social and intellectual upheaval, Socrates felt compelled to express his views, openly, regardless of the consequences. [9], Socrates' elenctic method was often imitated by the young men of Athens.[10]. The Mask of Sanity: An Attempt to Clarify Some Issues about the So-Called Psychopathic Personality. Finally, a fine of 3,000 drachmae was agreed, proposed by Plato, Crito, Critobulus, and Apollodorus, who guaranteed payment—nonetheless, the prosecutor of the trial of Socrates proposed the death penalty for the impious philosopher. He then defected back to Athens after successfully persuading the Athenians that Persia would come to their aid against Sparta (though Persia had no intention of doing so). Volume 7 – All about Athens. Several of the Thirty had been students of Socrates, but there is also a record of their falling out. In The Trial of Socrates (1988), I. F. Stone said that Socrates wanted to be sentenced to death, to justify his philosophic opposition to the Athenian democracy of that time, and because, as a man, he saw that old age would be an unpleasant time for him. Discuss how using context … and tr. (See: Phaedo), In the time of the trial of Socrates, the year 399 BC, the city-state of Athens recently had endured the trials and tribulations of Spartan hegemony and the thirteen-month régime of the Thirty Tyrants, which had been imposed consequent to the Athenian defeat in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC). Robin Waterfield asserts that "Socrates would have been welcome in oligarchic Thebes, where he had close associates among the Pythagoreans who flourished there, and which had already taken in other exiles. Among major European philosophers, specific or systematic attention to the death penalty is … Finally driven out of Athens after the defeat of the Battle of Notium against Sparta, Alcibiades was assassinated in Phrygia in 404 BC by his Spartan enemies. [11]:204 Waterfield said that Socrates, with his unconventional methods of intellectual enquiry, attempted to resolve the political confusion then occurring in the city-state of Athens, by willingly being the scapegoat, whose death would quiet old disputes, which then would allow the Athenian polis to progress towards political harmony and social peace. In the comic play, The Clouds (423 BC), Aristophanes represents Socrates as a sophistic philosopher who teaches the young man Pheidippides how to formulate arguments that justify striking and beating his father. [19] Plato himself reinforced anti-democratic ideas in The Republic, advocating rule by elite, enlightened "Philosopher-Kings". Gonick, Larry. Such representations of inter-generational social conflict among the men of Athens, especially in the decade from 425 to 415 BC, can reflect contrasting positions regarding opposition to or support for the Athenian invasion of Sicily. Martino Fine Books; 2 edition (2015) (original ed. It was natural that the trial and execution of Socrates in 399 BC proved to be a turning point in Plato’s life. [5] In the Greek text of his defense given by Plato, Socrates never actually uses that term (viz., "gadfly" [Grk., oîstros])[6] to describe himself. [11], In The New Trial of Socrates (2012), an international panel of ten judges held a mock re-trial of Socrates to resolve the matter of the charges leveled against him by Meletus, Anytus, and Lycon, that: "Socrates is a doer of evil and corrupter of the youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the state, and he believes in other new divinities of his own"; by split decision, five judges voted "guilty" and five judges voted "not guilty", which acquitted Socrates of corruption of the young and of impiety against the Athenian pantheon. After that failed suggestion, Socrates then offered to pay a fine of 100 drachmae—one-fifth of his property—which largesse testified to his integrity and poverty as a philosopher. The fact that Critias, leader of the Thirty Tyrants, had been a pupil of Socrates was held against him. 2013 Alcor Tour (16 minutes) with Nikola Danaylov (Socrates) of Singularity Weblog. Socrates is one of the principal characters of Aristophanes' comedy, Clouds; and Xenophon, a historian and military leader, wrote, like Plato, both an Apology of Socrates (an account of Socrates' trial) and other works in which Socrates appears as a principal speaker. The philosopher Socrates remains, as he was in his lifetime (469–399 B.C.E. The extant, primary sources about the history of the trial and execution of Socrates are: the Apology of Socrates to the Jury, by Xenophon of Athens, a historian; and the tetralogy of Socratic dialogues — Euthyphro, the Socratic Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, by Plato, a philosopher who had been a student of Socrates. Give two examples of why Socrates does not fear death. Your browser may not be compatible with all the features on this site. Larry Gonick, in his "Cartoon History of the Universe"[20] writes, "The trial of Socrates has always seemed mysterious...the charges sound vague and unreal...because behind the stated charges was Socrates's real crime: preaching a philosophy that produced Alcibiades and Critias... but of course he couldn't be prosecuted for that under the amnesty (which had been declared after the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants)... so his accusers made it "not believing the Gods of the city, introducing new gods, and corrupting the youth. Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths by Robin Waterfield, Norton, 2009. Formal accusation was the second element of the trial of Socrates, which the accuser, Meletus, swore to be true, before the archon (a state officer with mostly religious duties) who considered the evidence and determined that there was an actionable case of "moral corruption of Athenian youth" and "impiety", for which the philosopher must legally answer; the archon summoned Socrates for a trial by jury.[24]. The Trial of Socrates. The totalitarian Thirty Tyrants had anointed themselves as the elite, and in the minds of his Athenian accusers, Socrates was guilty because he was suspected of introducing oligarchic ideas to them. The trial and death of Socrates by Plato; Jowett, Benjamin, 1817-1893, ed. Expressing surprise at the few votes required for an acquittal, Socrates joked that he be punished with free meals at the Prytaneum (the city’s sacred hearth), an honour usually held for a benefactor of Athens, and for the victorious athletes of an Olympiad. At the request of Lysander, a Spartan admiral, the Thirty men, led by Critias and Theramenes, were to administer Athens and revise the city’s democratic laws, which were inscribed on a wall of the Stoa Basileios. [14], As with many of the issues surrounding Socrates' conviction, the nature of his affiliation with the Thirty Tyrants is far from straightforward. [26], Moreover, the Thirty Tyrants also appointed a council of 500 men to perform the judicial functions that once had belonged to every Athenian citizen. The trial of Socrates (399 BC) was held to determine the philosopher’s guilt of two charges: asebeia (impiety) against the pantheon of Athens, and corruption of the youth of the city-state; the accusers cited two impious acts by Socrates: "failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges" and "introducing new deities". Fowler, trans., Hervey M. Cleckley. (Diogenes Laërtius, 2.42). For the painting, see, 399 B.C.E legal proceedings by the pantheon of Athens against Socrates, Association with Alcibiades and the Thirty Tyrants, Support of oligarchic rule and contempt for Athenian democracy, Stone, I.F. This year’s lecture, “The Arts as a Praxis of Liberation: Embodying Change and Transformation in a Time … "[31], In Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths (2009), Robin Waterfield said that the death of Socrates was an act of volition motivated by a greater purpose; Socrates "saw himself as healing the City’s ills by his voluntary death". on June 8, 2008. teachers of history—Socrates, Aristotle, Siddhartha Gautama [The Buddha], Guru Nanalc, K'ung Fu-tze [Confucius], Zoroaster, Moses, Mohammed and Jesus Christ, most of whom were largely unlettered men. In the play Socrates on Trial (2007), Andrew Irvine said that for loyalty to Athenian democracy, Socrates willingly accepted the guilty-verdict voted by the jurors of his trial. 34.8k Followers, 1 Following, 2,999 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Street One (@mystreetone) They taught the truth of life in its practical essence, taking the torch of mental freedom In presenting such a prosecution, which addressed matters external to the specific charges of moral corruption and impiety levelled by the Athenian polis against Socrates, Anytus violated the political amnesty specified in the agreement of reconciliation (403–402 BC),[22] which granted pardon to a man for political and religious actions taken before or during the rule of the Thirty Tyrants, "under which all further charges and official recriminations concerning the [reign of] terror were forbidden".[23]. As a teacher, competitor intellectuals resented Socrates's elenctic examination method for intellectual inquiry, because its questions threatened their credibility as men of wisdom and virtue. The trial of Socrates (399 BC) was held to determine the philosopher’s guilt of two charges: asebeia against the pantheon of Athens, and corruption of the youth of the city-state; the accusers cited two impious acts by Socrates: "failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges" and "introducing new deities".. According to the portraits left by some of Socrates' followers, Socrates himself seems to have openly espoused certain anti-democratic views, the most prominent perhaps being the view that it is not majority opinion that yields correct policy but rather genuine knowledge and professional competence, which is possessed by only a few. This is proved, Waterfield argues, by the fact that after the Thirty were no longer in power, anyone who had remained in Athens during their rule was encouraged to move to Eleusis, the new home of the expatriate Thirty. In the Apology of Socrates (36a–b), about Socrates’s defense at trial, Plato said that if just 30 of the votes had been otherwise, then Socrates would have been acquitted (36a), and that (perhaps) less than three-fifths of the jury voted against him (36b). Uploaded by [32][33], "Death of Socrates" redirects here. [27][28] In their brief régime, the Spartan oligarchs killed about five per cent of the Athenian population, confiscated much property, and exiled democrats from the city proper. If the site you're looking for does not appear in the list below, you may also be able to find the materials by: Searching the Internet Archive for previously published materials. There were others too. Plato could not attend the discussion on account of illness. The jury of 500 or 501 men, based either on, "Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, πρόσκειμαι", "Socrates acquitted in ancient trial re-run", Apology of Socrates - Read Online at Tufts.edu, On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trial_of_Socrates&oldid=1000365631, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. [11] While a masterful orator, Alcibiades has been described by at least two 20th century psychologists as exhibiting the classic features of psychopathy. Consider upgrading to a modern browser for an improved experience. (1988). Critias, who appears in two of Plato's Socratic dialogues, was a leader of the Thirty Tyrants (the ruthless oligarchic regime that ruled Athens, as puppets of Sparta and backed by Spartan troops, for eight months in 404–403 BC until they were overthrown). The Socrates (aka conium.org) and Berkeley Scholars web hosting services have been retired as of January 5th, 2018. See the Greek text in H.N. 2013 Interview of Alcor CEO Max More (25 minutes) with Nikola Danaylov (Socrates) of Singularity Weblog. Although neither Plato nor Xenophon of Athens identifies the number of jurors, a jury of 501 men likely was the legal norm. It should be noted that Socrates was not the only one to be executed. Limiting themselves to the facts of the case against Socrates, the judges did not consider any sentence; the judges who voted the philosopher guilty said that they would not have considered the death penalty for Socrates. Moreover, the legal and religious particulars against Socrates that Polycrates reported in The Indictment of Socrates are addressed in the replies by Xenophon and the sophist Libanius of Antioch (314–390). Alcibiades, an Athenian general who had been the main proponent of the disastrous Sicilian Expedition during the Peloponnesian Wars, where virtually the entire Athenian invading force of more than 50,000 soldiers and non-combatants (e.g., the rowers of the Triremes) was killed or captured and enslaved, was a student and close friend of Socrates, and his messmate during the siege of Potidaea (433–429 BC). Thus, Waterfield suggests, Socrates’ contemporaries probably thought his remaining in Athens, even without participating in the Thirty’s bloodthirsty schemes, demonstrated his sympathy for the Thirty’s cause, not neutrality towards it. ), [] an enigma, an inscrutable individual who, despite having written nothing, is considered one of the handful of philosophers who forever changed how philosophy itself was to be conceived.
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