Socrates guilty or not Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Socrates guilty or not - Essay Example Socrates was convicted with four charges which stated that Socrates studied things up above in the heavens and below the earth, and was capable of making the worse of the arguments appear as the strongest ones owing to his eloquence, which he denies upfront. Furthermore, Socrates was accused of corrupting the mind of the youth of Athens, this charge was a consequence of the prior charges, and he was regarded as an evil doer, who made the youth follow in his evil plans; all this three charges culminated in the claim of the prosecutors that Socrates denied their gods and on the contrary had created gods of his own, and thus called him an atheist (Academic.mu, 2010, 1). Socrates defended himself and negated all these claims; however it is debatable as to whether he had managed to grasp the attention of the jurors, but even if he did, he angered them by proposing the alternate punishment for himself, which showed that he did not fear the jury or the prosecutors or death. Socrates respond ed to all these charges from the prosecutors in a detailed and complicated manner, which is rather confusing and leads the people away from the actual context, like other dialogues of Socrates narrated by Plato, such as ‘Euthyphro’ (Jowett 2008). The response of Socrates managed to make the prosecutors to agree to his denial, he rounded the argument in such a manner as to confuse others. He claimed that the charges against him were false, and levied by people who were personally angered by Socrates, and they were not knowledgeable and wise, and were careless of their people, and did not actually worry about the Athenians, but rather the reputation damage that Socrates caused them by calling them unwise. In order to take revenge from Socrates and teach him and other people who deviate from their orders that they would not be spared by them or the court, and therefore the trial of Socrates resulted in a death penalty which was approved by the majority of the jurors. Socrates