to do anything common or mean even though he was in danger: nor does he now repent of the style of his defence since he would rather die having spoken authentically than speak in their manner and live.
He concludes with addresses to his accusers and to his friends and predicts that his murderers will suffer grievously for their actions. Without his restraining influence, accusers will appear who will be more inconsiderate and brutal. If the good citizens of Athens believe that by killing men they can prevent accusers from censuring their evil lives, they are seriously mistaken. There is no possibility of escaping from them in an honourable manner; the noblest way is not to disable others, but to improve oneself.
To his friends Socrates points out that death is not to be feared, but welcomed. Either death is like an eternal peaceful sleep and therefore not to be despised, or death is a journey to another place where all the dead reside; it represents a fascinating journey for all of us. He looks forward to the possibility of conversing with Homer. He is excited by the prospect of conversing with ancient heroes who have suffered death through unjust judgements. Above all, he shall be able to continue his search for knowledge and he hopes to discover who is wise, and who pretends to be wise, and is not. In another, better world they do not put a man to death for asking questions.
Many readers of Plato have wondered why Socrates did not defend himself better. Did he want to die by effectively committing suicide? He neither presented himself as a noble man, nor put the jury into a receptive mood. Indeed, he deliberately antagonised them by attacking politicians, poets, playwrights and craftsmen for claiming knowledge of matters of which they were ignorant. In lacing his speech with heavy irony and dubious rhetoric, Socrates was identified with the worst of the Sophists and it is therefore unsurprising that he was brought to trial. Socrates knew what he was doing and in the Apology tells us that he refused to humble himself before the jury and speak in a language he detested. In choosing not to speak in the manner expected of a defendant, he remained true to his life’s project: to urge people to pursue virtue. His project required that he tell the truth and act virtuously and this is what he did, even if it meant his death. Because he claimed that he knew nothing, he was accused of dishonesty, but his ignorance was the foundation of his teaching. He aimed for the truth – to be a true Homo sapiens - but he was accused of intellectual corruption.
Socrates made many enemies. People in positions of authority do not like to be humiliated by people who are clever with words. He was so clever and vehement in debate that his fellow citizens set upon him with their fists and tore his hair out. Widely despised and laughed at for the eccentric that he was, he bore it all with surprising patience. He exercised his body to keep fit, prided himself on his plain living, and was obviously a man of strong ‘I’, which helped him survive several plagues in Athens. When asked whether one should marry or not, he replied that whichever decision we take, we will repent it. When he was told that someone had spoken ill of him he said that the unfortunate fellow had never learnt to speak well.
Socrates spent his last day talking with his wife who was holding their child in her arms. When she saw her husband’s friends she burst into tears and Socrates asked one of them to take her home. After a lengthy discussion about the immortality of the soul (in which the Platonic Socrates believed), Socrates drank the hemlock. His friends had tears in their eyes and one broke out in a passionate cry which unmanned them. Socrates alone retained his composure and pointed out that he asked the women to leave so that they might not misbehave since he wished to die peacefully. He wrapped his head in his cloak and died quietly among his friends, believing he was going to a better world in which he would at last discover the truth and rightness of existence. At his passing Phaedo remarked that of all men of his time whom he had known, Socrates was the wisest and best. After he died the Athenians soon felt such remorse that they closed the training grounds and gymnasia, put Meletus to death, banished the other accusers, and honoured Socrates with a bronze statue.
Socrates is today regarded as a legendary figure who lived and died for the truth. But in a world which no longer values truth as he did, he is now treated as something of a relic. His dialogues are widely regarded as difficult, boring and pointless. Since the 1970s and the rise of the postmodern world, thinking has been challenged by feeling, and argument is widely regarded as aggressive, rude and confronting. Consequently, we have to endure conversations laced with ‘in my opinion’, ‘it seems to me’, ‘I feel’, ‘subjectively speaking’ and such other phrases as enable people to pretend they are friendly by not causing offence to others. What these phrases actually do is protect their users from criticism. Expressions of personal feelings cannot be true or false since no one can know another’s feelings. To immunise oneself against criticism, then, one has only to use these apologetic phrases to disarm opponents. Socrates was not interested in how people felt, but in the truth of their descriptions of the world and themselves and in the validity of their arguments. He would be appalled that, 2400 years after his death, we lack the courage to submit ourselves to debate for fear of offending others. Socrates, to his credit, went out of his way to offend others by stating the truth and arguing about human existence: he died for his belief that the truth should be acknowledged no matter whom it might offend.
Today’s political correctness guardians do not respond warmly to Socrates. They would probably put him on trial again because in following the truth wherever it led him, he offended many people. His view was that a truth unuttered is a crime against philosophy and humanity and if people did not like to hear truths expressed, they needed to be educated. But he was surrounded, as we are today, by people who feared freedom of expression and sought to prohibit it. Consequently, the great age of Greek enlightenment was characterised by many trials for ‘corrupting the public’ and Socrates and Protagoras were two of many philosophers and dramatists who were found guilty and severely punished. Very little has changed over the centuries.
Of those who succeeded Socrates, the most famous is Plato who was too distressed to be with his mentor on his last day. Born in 427 BC, Plato was a young aristocrat whose disdain for democracy increased after the democrats put Socrates to death. Philosophically, he was greatly influenced by Pythagoras, Parmenides and Socrates from whom he derived his spiritualism, ontology and ethical ideas. At age 40 he was summoned to Syracuse but he found tutoring a tyrant uncongenial and the relationship ended badly. Upon his return to Athens, he joined a group of friends who wanted to establish an institution of learning – the Academy - with Plato at its head. After writing several of his now famous dialogues, Plato was invited back to Syracuse to advise its rulers on how to build a strong and glorious city-state. Again, Plato failed to convince the politicians and he returned to the intellectual delights of the Academy where he lectured and wrote more dialogues. His most famous dialogue – The Republic – is the outcome of what proved to be three unsuccessful visits to Syracuse. The Academy lasted for more than a thousand years and has never really left us since the universities of the Western world attest to its influence and inspiration.
Plato was greatly influenced by Socrates’ obsession with the meaning of moral concepts. In his famous parable of the cave he asks his readers to imagine being members of a group of people chained together and able only to face a wall. Behind them is a source of light and between them and the light something moves, thus throwing shadows on the wall of the cave. When asked questions about the ‘real’ world the only possible answers are ‘shadowy’ because the shadows represent the world of the cave-dwellers. Imagine that one person is released from bondage. She finds an escape route. But is she courageous enough to escape into the unknown? Assuming that she is, she climbs a tunnel with difficulty (the analogy here with school and vocational training is obvious). She considers turning back because the effort is considerable (one stops studying after school). But she perseveres and discovers another escape route. Does she have the courage to take the opportunity offered to her? Assuming that she does, she encounters the sunlight. The sun is too bright and there is a strong temptation to return to her friends in the safety of the cave. She has spent considerable energy in climbing out of the tunnel (the hard work of training) and exposure to the sun is tiring and painful. However, she perseveres and eventually finds comfort and rewards in the sun: she has become enlightened. As a member of a community her duty is to return
