The Last Days of Socrates

by Plato

  Socrates denies that he is a professional teacher.

  (e) The fact is that there is nothing in any of these charges; and if you have heard anyone say that I try to educate people and charge a fee,12 there is no truth in that either – though I think that it is a fine thing if a man has the ability to teach, as in the case of Gorgias of Leontini, Prodicus of Ceos and Hippias of Elis.13 Each one of these is perfectly capable of going into any city and actually persuading the young men to leave the company of 20(a) their fellow-citizens, with any of whom they can associate for nothing, attach themselves to him, pay money for the privilege, and be grateful into the bargain. There is another expert too from Paros who I discovered was here on a visit. (b) I happened to meet a man who has paid more in sophists’ fees than all the rest put together – I mean Callias, the son of Hipponicus;14 so I asked him (he has two sons, you see): ‘Callias,’ I said, ‘if your sons had been colts or calves, we should have had no difficulty in finding and engaging a trainer to make them excel in the appropriate qualities; and this trainer would have been some sort of horse-dealer or agriculturalist. But seeing that they are human beings, whom do you intend to get as their instructor? Who is the expert in perfecting the virtues of people in a society? I assume from the fact of your having sons that you must have considered the question. Is there such a person or not?’

  ‘Certainly’, said he. ‘Who is he, and where does he come from?’ said I, ‘and what does he charge?’ ‘Evenus of Paros,15 Socrates,’ said he, ‘and his fee is 500 drachmae.’ (c) I felt that Evenus was to be congratulated if he really was a master of this art and taught it at such a moderate fee.16 I should certainly become a proud and gentlemanly figure if I understood these things; but in fact, gentlemen, I do not.

  Socrates explains what his own activity has been. The oracle of Apollo has declared that he is the wisest of men, and he has been trying to find men wiser than he is as part of his search for the god’s meaning. The section begins in Socrates’ conversational manner, but the narrative which follows is stylistically very like that of other Athenian speeches for the lawcourts.

  Here perhaps one of you might interrupt me and say, ‘But what is it that you do, Socrates? How is it that you have been misrepresented like this? Surely all this talk and gossip about you would never have arisen if you had confined yourself to ordinary activities, but only if your behaviour was abnormal. (d) Give us the explanation, if you do not want us to draw our own conclusions.’ This seems to me to be a reasonable request, and I will try to explain to you what it is that has given me this false notoriety; so please give me your attention. Perhaps some of you will think that I am not being serious; but I assure you that I am going to tell you the whole truth.

  I have gained this reputation, gentlemen, from nothing more or less than a kind of wisdom. What kind of wisdom do I mean? Human wisdom, I suppose. It seems that I really am wise in this limited sense. (e) Presumably the geniuses whom I mentioned just now are wise in a wisdom that is more than human – I do not know how else to account for it, because I certainly do not have this knowledge, and anyone who says that I have is lying and just saying it to slander me. Now, gentlemen, please do not interrupt me even if I seem to make an extravagant claim; for what I am going to tell you is not a tale of my own; I am going to refer you to an unimpeachable authority. I shall call as witness to my wisdom (such as it is) the god at Delphi.17

  You know Chaerephon,18 I presume. He was a friend of mine 21(a) from boyhood, and a good democrat who played his part with the rest of you in the recent expulsion and restoration.19 And you know what he was like; how enthusiastic he was over anything that he had once undertaken. Well, one day he actually went to Delphi and asked this question of the god – as I said before, gentlemen, please do not interrupt – what he asked was whether there was anyone wiser than myself. The Pythian priestess replied that there was no one. As Chaerephon is dead, the evidence for my statement will be supplied by his brother20 here.

  (b) Please consider my object in telling you this. I want to explain to you how the attack on my reputation first started.21 When I heard about the oracle’s answer, I said to myself, ‘What is the god saying, and what is his hidden meaning? I am only too conscious that I have no claim to wisdom, great or small; so what can he mean by asserting that I am the wisest man in the world? He cannot be telling a lie; that would not be right for him.’22

  After puzzling about it for some time, I set myself at last with considerable reluctance to check the truth of it in the following way. (c)I went to interview a man with a high reputation for wisdom, because I felt that here if anywhere I should succeed in disproving the oracle and pointing out to my divine authority, ‘You said that I was the wisest of men, but here is a man who is wiser than I am.’

  Well, I gave a thorough examination to this person – I need not mention his name, but it was one of our politicians that I was studying when I had this experience – and in conversation with him I formed the impression that although in many people’s opinion, and especially in his own, he appeared to be wise, in fact he was not. (d) Then when I began to try to show him that he only thought he was wise and was not really so, my efforts were resented both by him and by many of the other people present. However, I reflected as I walked away: ‘Well, I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.’

  (e) After this I went on to interview a man with an even greater reputation for wisdom, and I formed the same impression again; and here too I incurred the resentment of the man himself and a number of others.

  From that time on I interviewed one person after another. I realized with distress and alarm that I was making myself unpopular, but I felt compelled to put the god’s business first; since I was trying to find out the meaning of the oracle, I was bound to interview everyone who had a reputation for 22(a) knowledge. And by Dog,23 gentlemen (for I must be frank with you), my honest impression was thus: it seemed to me, as I pursued my investigation at the god’s command, that the people with the greatest reputations were almost entirely deficient, while others who were supposed to be their inferiors were much more noteworthy for their general good sense.

  I want you to think of my adventures as a cycle of labours24 undertaken to establish the truth of the oracle once for all. (b) After I had finished with the politicians I turned to the poets,25 dramatic, lyric, and all the rest, in the belief that here I should expose myself as a comparative ignoramus. I used to pick up what I thought were some of their most polished works and question them closely about the meaning of what they had written, in the hope of incidentally enlarging my own knowledge. Well, gentlemen, I hesitate to tell you the truth, but it must be told. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that any of the bystanders could have explained those poems better than their actual authors. (c) So I soon made up my mind about the poets too: I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled them to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration,26 such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean. It seemed clear to me that the poets were in much the same case; and I also observed that the very fact that they were poets made them think that they had a perfect understanding of all other subjects, of which they were totally ignorant. So I left that line of inquiry too with the same sense of advantage that I had felt in the case of the politicians.

  Last of all I turned to the skilled craftsmen.27 (d) I knew quite well that I had practically no understanding myself, and I was sure that I should find them full of impressive knowledge. In this I was not disappointed; they understood things which I did not, and to that extent they were wiser than I was. (e) However, gentlemen, these professional experts seemed to share the same failing which I had noticed in th
e poets; I mean that on the strength of their technical proficiency they claimed a perfect understanding of every other subject, however important; and I felt that this error eclipsed their positive wisdom. So I made myself spokesman for the oracle, and asked myself whether I would rather be as I was – neither wise with their wisdom nor ignorant with their ignorance – or possess both qualities as they did. I replied through myself to the oracle that it was best for me to be as I was.

  The results of Socrates’ interrogations: odium, poverty, wealthy youths who enjoy imitating him, and charges that he is responsible for corrupting them.

  The effect of these investigations of mine, gentlemen, has been 23(a) to arouse against me a great deal of hostility, and hostility of a particularly bitter and persistent kind, which has resulted in various malicious suggestions, and in having that term ‘wise’ applied to me. This is due to the fact that whenever I succeed in disproving another person’s claim to wisdom in a given subject, the bystanders assume that I know everything about that subject myself.28 But the truth of the matter, gentlemen, is likely to be this: that real wisdom is the property of the god, and this oracle is his way of telling us that human wisdom has little or no value. (b) It seems to me that he is not referring literally to Socrates, but has merely taken my name as an example, as if he would say to us, ‘The wisest of you men is he who has realized, like Socrates, that in respect of wisdom he is really worthless.’

  That is why I still go about seeking and searching in obedience to the divine command, if I think that anyone is wise, whether citizen or stranger; and when I decide that he is not wise, I try to assist the god29 by proving that he is not. (c) This occupation has kept me too busy to do much either in politics or in my own affairs; in fact, my service to God has reduced me to extreme poverty.

  Furthermore the young men – those with wealthy fathers and plenty of leisure – have of their own accord30 attached themselves to me because they enjoy hearing other people cross-questioned. These often take me as their model, and go on to try to question other persons; whereupon, I suppose, they find an unlimited number of people who think that they know something, but really know little or nothing. (d) Consequently their victims become annoyed, not with themselves but with me; and they complain that there is a pestilential busybody called Socrates who fills young people’s heads with wrong ideas. If you ask them what he does, and what he teaches that has this effect, they have no answer, not knowing what to say; but as they do not want to admit their confusion, they fall back on the stock charges against any seeker after wisdom: that he teaches his pupils about things in the heavens and below the earth, and to disbelieve in gods, and to make the weaker argument defeat the stronger. They would be very loath, I fancy, to admit the truth: which is that they are being convicted of pretending to knowledge when they are entirely ignorant. (e) They were so jealous, I suppose, for their own reputation, and also energetic and numerically strong, and spoke about me with such vigour and persuasiveness, that their harsh criticisms have for a long time now been monopolizing your ears.

  Conclusion of the narrative concerned with Socrates’ activities and of Socrates’ reply to the ‘Old Accusers’.

  There you have the causes which led to the attack upon me by Meletus31 and Anytus32 and Lycon, Meletus being aggrieved on behalf of the poets, Anytus on behalf of the professional men and politicians, and Lycon on behalf of the orators.33 So, as I 24(a) said at the beginning, I should be surprised if I were able, in the short time that I have,34 to rid your minds of a misconception so deeply implanted.

  There, gentlemen, you have the true facts, which I present to you without any concealment or suppression, great or small. (b)I am fairly certain that this plain speaking of mine is the cause of my unpopularity; and this really goes to prove that my statements are true, and that I have described correctly the nature and the grounds of the calumny which has been brought against me. Whether you inquire into them now or later, you will find the facts as I have just described them.

  The cross-examination, part I. Socrates here proceeds to lose any sympathy which he may have gained in describing his activity by giving the jury a demonstration of how it works. Meletus’s lack of thought for the upbringing of young men is exposed.

  So much for my defence against the charges brought by the first group of my accusers. I shall now try to defend myself against Meletus – high-principled and patriotic as he claims to be – and after that against the rest.

  Let us first consider their affidavit again, as though it represented a fresh prosecution. (c) It runs something like this: ‘Socrates is guilty of corrupting the minds of the young, and of believing in supernatural things of his own invention instead of the gods recognized by the State.’35 Such is the charge; let us examine its points one by one.

  Now it claims that I am guilty of corrupting the young. But I say, gentlemen, that Meletus is guilty of treating a serious matter with levity, since he summons people to stand their trial on frivolous grounds, and professes concern and keen anxiety in matters to which he has never given the slightest attention.36 I will try to prove this to your satisfaction.

  Come now, Meletus, tell me this. (d) You regard it as supremely important, do you not, that our young people should be exposed to the best possible influence?

  ‘I do.’

  Very well, then; tell these gentlemen who it is that influences the young for the better. Obviously you must know, if you pay it so much attention. You have discovered the vicious influence, as you say, in myself, and you are now prosecuting me before these gentlemen; speak up and inform them who it is that has a good influence upon the young – you see, Meletus, that you are tongue-tied and cannot answer. Do you not feel that this is discreditable, and a sufficient proof in itself of what I said, that you have not paid attention to the subject? Tell me, my friend, who is it that makes the young good?

  ‘The laws.’

  (e) That is not what I mean, my dear sir; I am asking you to name the person whose first business it is to know the laws.

  ‘These gentlemen here, Socrates, the members of the jury.’

  Do you mean, Meletus, that they have the ability to educate the young, and to make them better?

  ‘Certainly.’

  Does this apply to all jurymen, or only to some?

  ‘To all of them.’

  Excellent! A generous supply of benefactors. Well, then, do

  these spectators who are present in court have an improving

  influence, or not? 25(a)

  ‘Yes, they do.’

  And what about the members of the Council?

  ‘Yes, the Councillors too.’

  But surely, Meletus, the members of the Assembly37 do not corrupt the young? Or do all of them too exert an improving influence?

  ‘Yes, they do.’

  Then it would seem that the whole population of Athens has a refining effect upon the young, except myself; and I alone corrupt them. Is that your meaning?

  ‘Most emphatically, yes.’

  A great misfortune, indeed, you’ve damned me for! Well, let me put another question to you. (b) Take the case of horses; do you believe that those who improve them make up the whole of mankind, and that there is only one person who has a bad effect on them? Or is the truth just the opposite, that the ability to improve them belongs to one person or to very few persons, who are horse-trainers, whereas most people, if they have to do with horses and make use of them, do them harm? Is not this the case, Meletus, both with horses and with all other animals? Of course it is, whether you and Anytus deny it or not. (c) It would be a singular dispensation of fortune for our young people if there were only one person who corrupted them, while all the rest had a beneficial effect. Well then, Meletus, you’ve given ample proof that you have never bothered your head about the young; and you make it perfectly clear that you have never paid the slightest attention to the matters over which you are now indicting me.

  Here is another point. Tell me seriously, Meletus, is i
t better to live in a good or in a bad community? Answer my question, like a good fellow; there is nothing difficult about it. Is it not true that wicked people do harm to those with whom they are in the closest contact, and that good people have a good effect?

  ‘Quite true.’

  (d) Is there anyone who prefers to be harmed rather than benefited by his associates? Answer me, please; the law commands you to answer. Is there anyone who prefers to be harmed?

  ‘Of course not.’

  Well, then, when you summon me before this court for corrupting the young and making their characters worse, do you mean that I do so intentionally or unintentionally?38

  ‘I mean intentionally.’

  (e) Why, Meletus, are you at your age so much wiser than I at mine? You have discovered that bad people always have a bad effect, and good people a good effect, upon their nearest neighbours; am I so hopelessly ignorant as not even to realize that by spoiling the character of one of my companions I shall run the risk of getting some harm from him? So ignorant as to commit this grave offence intentionally, as you claim? No, I do not believe it, Meletus, and I do not suppose that anyone else does. Either I have not a bad influence, or it is unintentional; so 26(a) in either case what you claim is false. And if I unintentionally have a bad influence, the correct procedure in cases of such involuntary misdemeanours is not to summon the culprit before this court, but to take him aside privately for instruction and reproof; because obviously if my eyes are opened, I shall stop doing what I do not intend to do. But you deliberately avoided my company in the past39 and refused to enlighten me, and now you bring me before this court, which is the place appointed for those who need punishment, not for those who need enlightenment.