Plato 9.2 Socrates’ Mission
After distancing himself from natural philosophers and sophists, Socrates goes on to talk about his special mission, in quasi-religious terms as suggested by his response to the Oracle at Delphi:
Men of Athens, I appreciate and love you, but I will obey the god rather than you, and as long as I draw breath and have the ability, I will not stop philosophizing and exhorting you and appealing to any one of you I happen to meet, saying what I always say, “Good sir, since you are an Athenian, a citizen of the greatest city and the one most renowned for wisdom and power, aren’t you ashamed of yourself for devoting yourself to maximizing your wealth, your reputation, and your rank, while you show no interest at all in how to improve your wisdom, your honesty, and the state of your soul?”
And if any of you protests and says he does care about these things, I won’t just quit and go away, but I will ask questions, examine, and cross-examine him. And if I find he hasn’t acquired virtue, but claims he has, I’ll accuse him of valuing the most important things the least and the least important things the most. I will do this to anyone I meet, young or old, foreigner or citizen, but especially to you citizens, since you are my kindred. Know well that this is what the god commands, and I believe that no greater good has ever come to this city than my mission for the god. For I spend all my time doing nothing else but urging you, both young and old, not to worry about your bodies or your possessions in preference to or as much as your soul, how it may be as good as possible, declaring, Goodness does not come from wealth, but from goodness comes wealth and every good thing that men possess, whether in private or public life.[7]
Here the usually self-effacing philosopher seems to go to the opposite extreme: far from being a bumbling know-nothing, he reveals himself to be God’s gift to Athens! His experience interviewing the wise and famous figures of Athens led him to realize that they all lack an awareness of their own limitations. What the people of Athens need is a desire for self-evaluation and personal improvement — a sense of humility.
Socrates goes on to recount the influence of a voice that warns him from doing certain actions — never telling him what to do but only what not to do. His daimonion, divine voice, acts as a kind of conscience to give him direction. Socrates goes on to speak of his involvement in the political life of Athens. He already had mentioned his service as a soldier in three important military campaigns. He now reminds the jury that he alone stood up for the laws of Athens in the trial of the generals who fought and won the Battle of Arginusae. When the Assembly wanted to rush to condemn them for failing to pick up the bodies of those who died in the battle (because of a storm that hindered operations), he insisted on due process. When the Thirty Tyrants ordered Socrates with a group of other citizens to arrest the war hero Leon of Salamis on trumped-up charges, he alone refused, thus risking his own life.
He goes on to point out that many of his young followers are present at the trial in his support along with their fathers, including Plato and his brother Adeimantus. Why are their fathers not testifying for the prosecution if Socrates has corrupted his followers? Socrates has a wife and three sons, but he refused to parade them before the court, as many defendants do, to win sympathy for his case. Trials should be based on facts and laws, not on emotional appeals.
He concludes by saying, “I believe, as none of my accusers do, in the gods.”[8] This statement hints at the sense in which he believes in gods who are more worthy of worship than the all-too-human deities of Homer and Hesiod. But he is careful not to say that out loud, since devotees of the old time religion would not take it well.
Socrates was judged guilty by a narrow margin. He then had to propose a counter-penalty to the death penalty demanded by his accusers. He offered to pay one pound of silver. His friends Plato, Crito, and Apollodorus offered him thirty pounds, or half a talent — a considerable sum. But he was condemned to death by a larger margin than the original vote.
[7].Plato Apology 29d2–30b4. Burnet’s reading (1924 ad 30b3) makes agatha in b4 the predicate (“goodness renders wealth and everything that men possess, whether in private or public life, valuable”); but this requires changing the syntax of the second clause in the middle of a parallel construction.
[8].Plato Apology 35d.
