TheTrialofSocrates(399B.C.).ppt

The Trial of Socrates (399 B.C.) Lecturer: Wu Shiyu Email: shiyuw@ /bbs Introduction In 399 B.C., a trial, one of the most famous of all time, was in progress in Athens. The accused, Socrates, seventy years old, Athenian greatest thinker and teacher, was convicted and later on, executed. The specific charges against him: guilty of impiety; guilty of corrupting the young.” Socrates That is what Socrates has been doing for years: going around Athens, questioning and questioning everybody he could find: “What is justice?” “What is piety?” “What is right and wrong?” Delphi Oracle’s Answer Socrates friend Chaerephon consulted the oracle at Delphi, asking the question that if anyone was wiser than Socrates. The Oracle offered the answer that none was wiser. When Socrates was told this, he believed that what the Oracle had said was a paradox, because he believed he possessed no wisdom whatsoever. And then he went around Athens, approaching men considered wise by the people, including statesmen, poets, and artisans, with the purpose of refuting the Oracles answer. By this, however, Socrates realized that each man he questioned who thought he knew a great deal and was wise turned out, in fact, not wise at all. 10. Delphi Oracle’s Answer Socrates then knew that the Oracle was right, “in that while so-called wise men thought themselves wise and yet were not, he himself knew he was not wise at all which, paradoxically, made him the wiser one since he was the only person aware of his own ignorance”. And the saying that “I know that I know thing” which is attributed to Socrates had become well known. And it is Socrates paradoxical wisdom which made the prominent Athenians he publicly questioned appear foolish, became infuriated, and finally turned against him. Then in 399 B.C., Anytus, a supporter of democracy who had suffered personally under the tyrants, with two other men Meletus, and Lycon of lesser prominence prosecuted Socrates. They accused So