Apology by Plato

Rhiannon Neufell

PHI 103 - Informal Logic

Instructor Elliot Crozat

April 28, 2014

Apology by Plato

In Apology, by Plato, the reader is shown the trial that Socrates underwent before he drank hemlock, as demanded by his judges. He faced the charges of being a man that corrupts youths by teaching them to question everything, an accusation that is laid by the court of public opinion, and of being an "evildoer... who does not receive the gods who the state receives, but introduces other new divinities" (Asscher & Widger, 2013, pp. 5).

He refutes these accusations by highlighting the years of gossip and prejudice that he had been party to. He reminded his judges that they had been exposed to the court of public opinion, where they were inundated with these...