A seventy-year-old philosopher, on trial for his life, refuses every move that might save him — and explains, in the hours he has left, why.
The Apology is the speech Socrates gave in his own defense at his trial in Athens in 399 BCE, written down some years later by his student Plato. He was seventy years old. The charges were impiety — not believing in the gods of the city — and corrupting the young. Five hundred and one Athenian citizens sat in judgment. The word apologia in Greek means a defense, not a regret; Socrates does not apologize for anything in this speech, and he comes very close to telling the jury that they ought to be honoring him instead of trying him.
The text is short — three speeches separated by two votes. First the main defense, in which Socrates explains how he came by his reputation, cross-examines his accuser, and tells the jury he will not stop philosophizing if they let him go. Then the verdict comes back guilty by a small margin, and he is asked to propose his own counter-penalty against Meletus's call for death; he proposes, half in earnest, that the city honor him with free meals at public expense. The jury votes for death by a much larger margin. The final speech is what he says after the sentence. It is the founding document of philosophy as a way of life — and the founding case study of what it costs to live that way when the city decides it has had enough.
Click through the 3 chapters like a tour. Each card picks up where the last left off — a quick way to read The Apology in five minutes. Open any book in depth, or jump straight into the reader.
The examined life
The most famous line in Western philosophy is said by a man about to die for living it. Socrates argues that examination — relentless self-questioning and questioning of others — is not optional for a human life. It is what makes the life human.
The oracle and Socratic ignorance
Socrates traces his whole reputation back to a single visit to Delphi by his friend Chaerephon. The oracle said no one was wiser than Socrates. He spent decades trying to disprove it — and discovered, by failing, what the god had meant.
The gadfly and the city
In the most quoted image of the speech, Socrates calls himself a gadfly attached to the great noble horse of Athens — a sting whose job is to keep the city awake. Killing him, he warns, will not produce another. The city will go back to sleep.
The care of the soul
Throughout the speech, Socrates argues that his real work has been turning Athenians from their bodies and bank accounts toward the care of their souls. This is the order he claims the gods gave him, and the order he refuses to abandon at the price of his life.
Philosophy on trial — and death as a possible good
In the closing speech, after the death sentence, Socrates argues that his judges should not weep for him. Death is one of two things, both of which are good. Whether he is right is the question philosophy has been arguing about ever since.