Model / image of Socrates actions.

Socrates is a great hero like Achilles.

Socrates is a minor annoyance like a fly.

Socrates in court

Socrates speaks plainly in his everyday manner because he has never been in court and doesn’t know the proper style of speech.

Socrates shows that he does know common courtroom rhetoric (e.g. in claiming that he doesn’t know it because he has never been in court  and in parading his children before the jurors.)

Socrates is a stranger to the Athenians not because he doesn’t know the accepted modes of speech but because his ideas are radically different from common Athenian views.

Is Socrates guilty of impiety?

No. He knows nothing about natural philosophy. Since he believes in divine things he must believe in gods.

Yes.  He does not know whether the claims of natural philosophers are true, which means he is at best an agnostic about the gods of Athens and perhaps all the gods.

Socrates never claims that he believes in divine things (his daimon may not come from a supernatural source) and, anyway one can believe in divine things, such as churches, without believing in gods.

Is Socrates guilty of corruption of the young?

No because he has no techne that enables him to teach human wisdom and excellence and because he takes no money.

Yes because human wisdom is not a techne but, rather is an area in which people fundamentally disagree. One can teach in this area by exploring and examining different and conflicting views even if one has no answers oneself.

Raising questions about Athenian ideals is, itself, corruption of the young.

Why does Socrates philosophize?

Socrates is ordered by the God / placed by a commander.

Socrates likes Achilles is forced into battle.

Socrates is in the position he thinks best because philosophy is the greatest good for man.

The gadfly annoys the horse for his own reasons.

Deeds and speech

Socrates portrays his true self in his deeds in warfare and in standing up to the injustice done by both the oligarchy and democracy.

Socrates portrays his true self in the speech that calls the Athenian way of life into question.

How does Socrates serve the polis?

He convinces everyone to pursue wisdom, truth, and the state of their soul rather than honor, reputation, and wealth.

Socrates replaces Achilles as the ideal model for Athens.

He stimulates thought, reflection and reconsideration of some traditional views while largely leaving them intact.

Socrates is a gadfly.

He provides an outlet for young people who call traditional ideals into question while encouraging them to accept their civic duties (as Socrates did in serving on the council and in war).

Who does Socrates speak to?

Everyone who cares to listen to him in the marketplace.

A few people to whom he speaks privately.

Why is Socrates convicted and sentenced to death?

He is unjustly convicted by a polis more concerned with wealth and honor than truth and wisdom.

He goads Athens into killing him because he is old and wants to be a martyr for philosophy

Socrates’ courage

Socrates courageously defends himself against the charges brought against him and will not stop philosophizing even at the cost of death.

Socrates has tried to stay out of trouble by avoiding political involvement and only talking with people privately.

Socrates does no injustice but does not come to the aid of those who suffer injustice. (E.g. Leon of Salamis.) And he does only the minimum required by citizens of Athens.

Proper penalty

Free meals in the Prytaneum because he makes Athenians happy.

A fine, because he is guilty either of the charges or, perhaps, of talking publicly about his private activity

How does Socrates serve philosophy?

By becoming a martyr for philosophy. He teaches citizens to respect philosophy as something worth dying for. His death and the condemnation it brings Athens makes future political communities reluctant to kill their philosophers.

He teaches philosophers the dangers of philosophy.

Philosophy is dangerous to philosophers because it can lead to their condemnation and death.

It is dangerous to political communities and philosophers because both need people to be willing to uphold traditional ideals and, in particular, to fight and die for their own people.

Philosophers are taught by Socrates how to avoid condemnation by speaking carefully in public.

Who will follow Socrates?

More will come who, like Socrates, challenge the Athenians to account for their live.

Someone like Socrates will not be found again, soon.

Perhaps the reasons is that Socrates was, contrary to initial appearances, more restrained in his criticism of Athens than the philosophers who follow him will be.

Death

Immortality in which people are not condemned for philosophizing—in which people are rewarded for justice and condemned for injustice in this world

Eternal sleep.

Who is the audience for Socrates’ speech?

Athenian citizens and citizens of other political communities

Socrates hopes to convince them to respect philosophy because: (1) Philosophy must be important if Socrates is willing to die for it; (2) The God commands him (and perhaps others) to philosophize; and (3) Philosophy pursues truth, wisdom, and the best possible state of our soul.

Every political community believes that not only that truth, wisdom, and the state of our soul are valuable but that they are in possession of these goods. Thus citizens of a political community cannot condemn someone who pursues these goods without implicitly condemning  their own way of life. Socrates' portrayal of philosophy, then, is meant to make it more difficult for political communities to stomp out philosophy and philosophers in the future.

Philosophers and potential philosophers, who are capable of understanding his speech in a deeper way than most people.

Socrates hopes to teach philosophers and potential philosophers both the good of philosophy and the danger of philosophy to a political community. Thus he teaches them to practice philosophy in a way that will be safe for their political community and for themselves. Among other things, this means that philosophers may have to be quiet about certain matters or to teach in ways that protect philosophy and philosophers. One thing they might do, for example, is to write in ways that are open to two levels of interpretation, one which everyone might understand, and another, more radical view, that only a few will understand.