The Ironic Defense of Socrates: Plato's Apology by David M. Leibowitz

Author:David M. Leibowitz [Leibowitz, David M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781107671997
Amazon: 0521194792
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2014-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Socrates’ Young Imitators (23c–e)

Socrates made enemies by refuting the men of the city. But this, it turns out, was not the only thing that led to hatred and slander. He now introduces a new factor: some of the young, who enjoy hearing men examined, try to imitate him by debunking their fathers, or at least men of their fathers’ generation (see 37d6–e2). (Alcibiades was Pericles’ adopted son.) Unlike Socrates, they have no divine mission: they do it because it is fun. They take a somewhat malicious pleasure in humiliating others. It is not altogether malicious, perhaps, because it is important both to test one's newly acquired insights and to find out who is worth listening to in life and who is not. Those who are debunked then become extremely angry, not at themselves, but at Socrates, whom they call “most disgusting” (or “most polluted”) – not “most wise” – and a corrupter of the young. They act, one might say, as if Socrates were to blame for their own stupidity. When asked how he corrupts, they are, of course, not about to reply, “By teaching the young to expose men like me for the fools and frauds we really are!” They have nothing to say. But since they must say something, they say the things “ready at hand against all who philosophize”: (1) “the things aloft and under the earth”; (2) “not believing in gods”; and (3) “making the weaker speech the stronger” (23d4–7). It could seem that those who level these charges know nothing whatsoever about Socrates, but they get at least this much right: he is a philosopher. Needless to say, Socrates does not explain how these charges came to be ready at hand.

In this, Socrates’ first use of a term cognate with “philosophy,” he shows us the popular view of philosophers. As we have begun to see, one purpose of his defense is to alter this view (cf. 29d2–30b4). It would nevertheless appear that he himself, with his notorious natural science background and his public refutation of moral and perhaps even pious beliefs, was second to none in fostering it. While he says that these accusers are “ignorant” of what he teaches and does, and hence must to some degree guess, he does not say that they have guessed wrong (23d3). And mustn't they know from the examinations they suffer at least some of the topics the young hear him discussing?

Socrates makes it appear that he has as little as possible to do with the young. He says they follow him “of their own accord,” and they undertake examinations by themselves, that is, without any prompting from him (23c2–4). He does not acknowledge here that he ever so much as spoke to any of them; and he surely does not admit what we see throughout the other dialogues, that he sought out the promising young at every opportunity.83 He is hiding both his desire for contact with the young and the extent of that contact. With this in mind, let us return to the question of why he examined men in public.

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