Term Paper on "Plato's Apology and Socrates' Trial the Charges"

Term Paper 9 pages (3029 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

PLATO'S APOLOGY and SOCRATES' TRIAL

The charges against Socrates in Plato's Apology were certainly unfair, and unfounded, as any reader living in the year 2006 can clearly see. Of course, hindsight is always "20-20," but the purpose behind studying Plato (who carefully wrote down most of what Socrates said) is not just to examine unfair charges against a great philosopher, and what those charges were based on, and how they came about. The reason for spending time researching what Socrates did and said is not to discover what was fair in 399 B.C., and how 70-year-old man could be put to death on vague charges of "impiety" and "corruption of the young."

Indeed, the reason for studying Plato and Socrates is to come into contact with classic philosophy; and in the case of Socrates, the purpose for examining and analyzing his remarks is because the man was a genius when it came to logic, debate, argument, and truth. His words and thoughts rise hundreds of miles above just about anything that is uttered today by "leaders" and "thinkers."

And that having been said, this paper will use portions and excerpts of what Socrates said in his own defense, and what scholars have written about Socrates' arguments and about the political and social climate during the time Socrates was on trial, and make comparisons and arguments about those events based on events in American society in more modern times.

CONDITIONS in ATHENS at the TIME of SOCRATES' TRIAL: First of all, at the starting point of any discussion regarding the trial of Socrates, a perspective of the political and social conditions in Greece at the time of the accusations against Socrates is very important to understand. The reality of that period of time was that Athens had very recently gone through the brutal Peloponnesian War. "The effects of this war had been disastrous on her economy and on her political life" (Brickhouse, et al., p. 19), according to the book Socrates on Trial. Various factions blamed each other for the defeats that were suffered during the Peloponnesian War, and Brickhouse writes that "suspicion and power-mongering were rife" in the land.

What added to the paranoia and finger-pointing was that in the year 411 B.C., 12 years before Socrates was brought to trial, about four hundred members of the "oligarchic" faction actually toppled the Greek democracy for a time; and in the year 404 B.C., according to Brickhouse, another upheaval took place involving the same men, who were called "Thirty Tyrants." So, given that there was already "grief and insecurity" in the land, due to the bloody Peloponnesian War, when the "Thirty Tyrants" caused instability and fear, Athenians sought out those who may have corrupted those thirty young men and had "aroused the gods" against Athens.

Needless to say, Socrates was a scapegoat for all that social hysteria, because in his time, it was not uncommon for intellectuals - writers, philosophers, and artists, among others - to challenge establishment beliefs and practices. "After all," Brickhouse writes on page 19, "by their very nature and regardless of their particular persuasions, such intellectuals challenge established wisdom and tradition." And during the Classical period of world history, there were several high-profile prosecutions of intellectuals, including the trial of Anaxagoras.

Beyond those initial reasons for bringing Socrates to trial (war paranoia, social upheaval), he was under a cloud of suspicion because he associated with "Sophists," men with "unsavory reputations," and with other individuals who were part of the "Thirty Tyrants." So, it was guilt by association in the case of Socrates.

McCARTHYISM in AMERICA: Fast-forward from the time of Socrates to the 1950s in America. The country had just been through the horrific WWII - in Europe against the Nazis and in the Pacific theater against Japan - and now the specter of communism was in the news and was greater than before WWII, because the Soviet Union had gained a lot of territory (known as "The Iron Curtain") due to the dividing up of the beleaguered European nations after Hitler fell. It was the announced intention of the Soviets to spread communism.

In America, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy used the near-universal fear of communism to further his own political career, and he publicly declared over and over that many "card-carrying" communists had infiltrated the U.S. government, and the entertainment industry as well. That kind of hateful paranoid attack strategy employed by McCarthy was very similar in tone and theme to the false accusations against Socrates, and indeed, both instances were associated with wartime environments in society. Trial by fear and retribution is not a new ploy for politicians and others in powerful positions.

Using the House Un-American Activities Committee as his forum, McCarthy's "...paranoid hunt for infiltrators was notoriously difficult on writers and entertainers," according to an article in American Masters (www.pbs.org) in 2003. During this emotional period in American history, "there were few in the press willing to stand up against McCarthy and the anti-communist machine," PBS reports.

A few did stand up, and they included well-known journalist Edward R. Murrow, and popular comedian Mort Sahl. But meantime there were approximately three hundred and twenty artists and actors who were "blacklisted" because of false accusations from McCarthy and his committee, or because they refused to sign an "oath of loyalty" to America; those blacklisted included acclaimed playwright Arthur Miller; big-name movie actors Charlie Chaplin and Lillian Hellman; composer Leonard Bernstein. None of these well-known people of course are in a league with Socrates; that is not the point of bringing up the comparison. But the point is that in times of war and fear, which was true in the Socrates case and in McCarthy's era, society is willing to pass the blame along, and find scapegoats, in order to satisfy its craving for punishing a villain (or someone who can appear to be villainous).

The McCarthyism era may have done more damage than just cause the "blacklisting" of prominent personalities, according to author Ellen Schrecker, writing in the Age of McCarthyism; "...meaningful political dissent had all but withered away," she writes, and "a silent generation of students populated the nation's campuses, while their professors shrank from teaching anything that might be construed as controversial" (Schrecker 92-94). One example of how McCarthyism's "Black Silence of Fear" (attributed to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas by Schrecker) is what happened to a small group of graduate students at the University of Chicago in the late 1950s, shortly after McCarthy was discredited and censored.

The students tried to have a vending machine installed outside the physics department, Schrecker writes; and in order to make the vending machine a reality, they circulated a petition to the university's Building and Grounds Department, soliciting support. Their colleagues refused to sign the petition, because "they did not want to be associated with the allegedly radical students whose names were already on the document."

SOCRATES' TRIAL: During the trial that put Socrates' life at stake, there was no public prosecutor to bring formal charges against an individual for alleged crimes. Apparently, according to R.E. Allen's book Socrates and Legal Obligation, there were about "five hundred dicasts" - individuals who served as judges and jury members - and perhaps several thousand witnesses in the audience. And again, no official prosecutor was in charge of proceedings, rather, three "accusers" were the prosecutors; according to Brickhouse, et al., they were Meletus, Anytus, and Lycon. Brickhouse (p. 27) writes that Meletus "is the one who made the official indictment," and "we have some grounds," Brickhouse continues on page 28, "to believe that Socrates' accuser was a bona fide religious fanatic." We do know that Socrates' patriotism and loyalty to Athens' traditional believes and morality was being questioned, and that indirectly or directly, Socrates was being linked to the "Thirty Tyrants" and "Sophists."

PATRIOTISM in 2006 in AMERICA: There are similar things going on in the United States these days when it comes to politically powerful people challenging well-known personalities and challenging their loyalty to the policies put in place by the powers that be. In this case, the first of two instances that are worth illustrating is when Vice President Dick Cheney recently said that those Democrats who are advocating withdrawal from Iraq actually "embolden Al Qaeda types" (http://mediamatters.org).

Basically, what Cheney said was, if you are advocating a quick exit from the bloodshed and chaos of Iraq, you are going against the policy of the executive branch of government and therefore you are supporting terrorists like Al Qaeda, the notorious organization headed by Osaka bin Laden. Cheney was implying that you're an enemy of the state if you don't tow the line thrown out there and the policies put in place by the current executive branch of government.

Just as Socrates was linked - guilt by association being the operative strategy - to the "Thirty Tyrants" so were leaders of the opposition party in America linked to terrorists.

The second example that will be used… READ MORE

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