Plato: The Apology and Meno
Introduction
Our first reading is one of the most important texts in the history of philosophy, the Apology. Although this dialogue was written by Plato, its central concern is one of Plato’s teachers, the Athenian philosopher Socrates (469-399 BC).
The Apology is one of several dialogues written by Plato that describes the trial, imprisonment, and execution of Socrates by his fellow Athenians. Although Socrates is on trial in the Apology, the term apology is not to be taken as an admission of guilt or wrongdoing. Rather, Socrates not only defends himself, he turns the tables on his accusers by criticizing both them and the Athenians in general. His comparison of the people of Athens to a sluggish horse that he must sting into action, quoted below, has gone down in history as a famous analogy:
...if you kill me you will not easily find another like me. I was attached to this city by the god — though it seems a ridiculous thing to say — as upon a great and noble horse which was somewhat sluggish because of its size and needed to be stirred up by a kind of gadfly. It is to fulfill some such function that I believe the god has placed me in the city. I never cease to rouse each and every one of you, to persuade and reproach you all day long and everywhere I find myself in your company (p. 35).
Thus, Socrates was a gadfly, goading the intellectually slothful citizens of Athens into questioning the established beliefs of the time. He wanted people to think rather than assume. Socrates was famous for questioning common assumptions and cherished beliefs that his fellow Athenians held about such matters as justice, courage, love, and knowledge. He was very adept at showing that people know far less than they actually suppose. In other words, he showed that people are often fooled by appearances.
To use a contemporary example, a university may appear to be a community that pursues “truth and knowledge” when in fact it is a hierarchy that prioritizes marketing and political correctness over freedom of speech. If Socrates were with us today, he would question us as well. Some scholars argue that this was the real reason why Socrates was put on trial and executed: not for impiety and corrupting the youth, but for demonstrating through his dialogues that the people around him were unenlightened.
Socrates demonstrates a similar attitude in dialogues such as Meno and Crito. His disdain for majority opinion, which is expressed more than once in these dialogues, reaffirms his unwillingness to blindly conform to conventional beliefs and values. Thus, to the very end of his life, he insists on reaching his own conclusions.
However, Socrates not only judges the people of Athens but also himself. The Apology is famous for Socrates’ claim that he himself knows “practically nothing” (p. 27), and for this reason he refuses to collect money from his students. Yet at the same time, when he compares himself to an Athenian who was supposedly wise, he states “... it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know” (p. 26).
So, for Socrates, it is crucial to recognize one’s limits; i.e., one should not fall under the illusion of believing that one is wise or knowledgeable when one is not. Socrates has gone down in history as being the paradigm example of a great philosopher who denies having wisdom.
Whether Socrates was being ironic in denying wisdom has been, and remains, an open question. Regardless, Socrates and his method of questioning (known as the Socratic method) gained him a notorious reputation among the Athenians. A famous depiction of Socrates is shown in Raphael’s School of Athens. In the close-up below, Socrates enumerates his points with people who, judging from their expressions, are not entirely happy with what Socrates is saying. Because he had a tendency to win arguments with anyone, including the so-called “experts” of Athens, Socrates gained a formidable reputation. Many were intimidated by him, and he became very unpopular with his contemporary Athenians, as the Apology makes clear.
— A. Pasqualoni, 2018 (Revised January 2021)
Text
Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo
by Plato (Author), John M. Cooper (Editor), G. M. A. Grube (Translator)
Hackett Publishing Company; 2nd edition (October 1, 2002).
Reading assignments have been posted in the course schedule of the syllabus.
Quotations for Discussion 1 (Week 1)
Quotations from the Apology in Plato: Five Dialogues:
1. “...so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know.” (p. 26)
2. “...human wisdom is worth little or nothing...” (p. 27)
3. “It would be a very happy state of affairs if only one person corrupted our youth, while the others improved them.” (p. 30)
4. “Do not the wicked do some harm to those who are ever closest to them, whereas good people benefit them?” (p. 30)
5. “This has destroyed many other good men and will, I think, continue to do so.” (p. 32)
6. “You are wrong, sir, if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death...” (p. 32)
7. “...wherever a man has taken a position that he believes to be best, or has been placed by his commander, there he must I think remain and face danger...” (p. 33)
8. “I do know, however, that it is wicked and shameful to do wrong, to disobey one’s superior, be he god or man.” (p. 33)
9. “I shall never fear or avoid things of which I do not know...” (p. 33)
10. “Men of Athens, I am grateful and I am your friend, but I will obey the god rather than you...” (p. 34)
11. “...if I do not think he has attained the goodness that he says he has, I shall reproach him because he attaches little importance to the most important things and greater importance to inferior things.” (p. 34)
12. “...if you kill me you will not easily find another like me.” (p. 35)
13. “Be sure that if you kill the sort of man I say I am, you will not harm me more than yourselves.” (p.35)
14. “I, on the other hand, have a convincing witness that I speak the truth, my poverty.” (p. 35)
15. “I have a divine or spiritual sign which Meletus has ridiculed in his deposition. This began when I was a child. It is a voice...” (p. 36)
16. “A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time.” (p. 36)
17. “...death is something I couldn’t care less about, but that my whole concern is not to do anything unjust or impious.” (p.37)
18. “...it is the greatest good for a man to discuss virtue every day and those other things about which you hear me conversing and testing myself and others, for the unexamined life is not worth living for men...” (p.41)
19. “Neither I nor any other man should, on trial or in war, contrive to avoid death at any cost.” (p.42)
20. “...there are many ways to avoid death in every kind of danger if one will venture to do or say anything to avoid it.” (p. 42)
21. “It is not difficult to avoid death, gentlemen; it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.” (p.42)
22. “...it is best and easiest not to discredit others but to prepare oneself to be as good as possible.” (pp. 42-43).
23. “...those of us who believe death to be an evil are certainly mistaken.” (p.43)
24. “If it is complete lack of perception, like a dreamless sleep, then death would be a great advantage.” (p. 43)
25. “...it is clear to me that it was better for me to die now and to escape from trouble. That is why my divine sign did not oppose me at any point.” (p. 44)
26. “...a good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death...” (p. 44)
27. “I go to die, you go to live. Which of us goes to the better lot is known to no one, except the god.” (p.44)
Please choose a quote that has not been discussed by another student. Please see the Discussion Guidelines for additional information.
The first line of your post should be the quotation you have chosen (see example below). This will allow other students to easily determine which quotations have been previously discussed.
Quotations for Discussion 2 (Week 2)
Quotations from Meno in Plato: Five Dialogues:
1. “There is virtue for every action and every age, for every task of ours and every one of us...” (pg. 61)
2. “Even if they [the virtues] are many and various, all of them have one and the same form which makes them virtues, and it is right to look to this when one is asked to make clear what virtue is.” (p. 61)
3. “...all human beings are good in the same way, for they become good by acquiring the same qualities.” (p. 62)
4. “I think, Socrates, that virtue is, as the poet says, ‘to find joy in beautiful things and have power.’” (p. 66)
5. “...what else is being miserable but to desire bad things and secure them?” (p. 67)
6. “...when I begged you to tell me about virtue as a whole, you are far from telling me what it is...” (p. 69)
7. One “cannot search for what he knows — since he knows it, there is no need to search — nor for what he does not know, for he does not know what to look for.” (p. 70)
8. “...now I think you are bewitching and beguiling me, simply putting me under a spell, so that I am quite perplexed.” (p. 70)
9. “...searching and learning are, as a whole, recollection.” (p. 71)
10. “You see, Meno, that I am not teaching the boy anything, but all I do is question him.” (p. 73)
11. “Have we done him any harm by making him perplexed and numb as the torpedo fish does?” (p. 75)
12. “These opinions have now just been stirred up like a dream...” (p. 77)
13. “...it is clear that during all time he exists, either as a man or not.” (p. 78)
14. “...we will be better men, braver and less idle, if we believe that one must search for the things one does not know...” (p. 78)
15. “...all that the soul undertakes and endures, if directed by wisdom, ends in happiness...” (p. 80)
16. “...virtue is wisdom...” (p. 81)
17. “If not only virtue but anything whatever can be taught, should there not be of necessity people who teach it and people who learn it?” (p. 82)
18. “Should we say that they are teachers of this subject, when they do not even agree on this point?” (p. 87)
19. “...we agreed that a subject that has neither teachers nor pupils is not teachable?” (p. 88)
20. “We must then at all costs turn our attention to ourselves and find someone who will in some way make us better” (p. 88)
21. “To acquire an untied work of Daedalus is not worth much...” (p. 90)
22. “I too speak as one who does not have knowledge but is guessing.” (p. 90)
23. “...right opinion is a different thing from knowledge.” (p. 90)
24. “...it is not knowledge which makes them what they are.” (p. 91)
25. “...it is through right opinion that statesmen follow the right course for their cities.” (p. 91)
26. “...virtue would be neither an inborn quality nor taught, but comes to those who possess it as a gift from the gods...” (p. 92)
27. “In the same manner such a man would, as far as virtue is concerned, here also be the only true reality compared, as it were, with shadows” (p. 92)
Please choose a quote that has not been discussed by another student. Please see the Discussion Guidelines for additional information.
The first line of your post should be the quotation you have chosen (see example above). This will allow other students to easily determine which quotations have been previously discussed.
Supplementary Material
The video lectures on the Apology and Meno cover some of the key points of the dialogues.