Apology by Plato “The unexamined life is not worth living”

 Apology by Plato

“The unexamined life is not worth living”

-          How can people be so stupid as to kill the best among them?

-          Here is the answer

Reading the Apology, I was thinking that it takes a lot of gullibility to decide to sentence to death one of the best among your group.

-          Could it be that the times were mostly responsible for this?

-          With the exception of a few, people had a limited knowledge

-          There is the issue of the many gods they believed in…

But then I realized that we do this in our day and age, when education is available and information is easy to get.

There were two examples, in the recent history of the land I live in.

First, the King of Romania.

As he tried to come back, in 1990, he was stopped on the highway, packed and sent back to Switzerland.

And we are talking about a noble character, the only leader of the country to survive from WWII and who stood bravely in the face of the enemy.

Second, Corneliu Coposu.

He was as close to a saint as one can get, spending seventeen years in communist prisons without abandoning his ideals and values.

And yet, the mob that brought in the commies with a 90 % majority was keen to lynch the best of them all.

In other words, if things like these happen in the civilized world, what can we expect from the contemporaries of Socrates?

The charges against the lover of Wisdom were serious, if false and made in complete bad faith by Meletus and others.

Socrates stands accused of corrupting the young- and yet none comes forward or any member of a presumed injured family- and that he does not respect the gods.

An accusation of impiety was serious, but the main reason that the philosopher is forced to drink poison is his own attitude.

He chooses to be defiant and charges that if he dies, it is not he that would suffer most but his judges for they would commit an injustice.

That he is brave, Socrates had proved it before on the battlefield and when he confronted the tyrants.

He even says that he would rather die and meet with the likes of Achilles and other brave and extraordinary heroes.

As proof that he has committed no malfeasance, Socrates cites the poverty he lives in, that demonstrates he received no money.

He even suggests paying a small fine, of one mina, that would be topped by his friends, Plato and others, up to 30 mina.

The attitude of superiority and serenity can be understood, for he says that he has not much longer to live anyway.

-          You could have waited a little and nature would have taken its course

One of the most fascinating parts has always been the story of the Oracle of Delphi and the proclamation that:

-          Socrates is the wisest of all men

Puzzled at first, the philosopher asked around and inquired into the knowledge of the many who claim to know so much.

Politicians proved to be imposters, the poets did not know what they were talking about and others as well did not comprehend much if anything.

 And in the end, we better finish with some quotes

“For to fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise without really being wise, for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For no one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to man.”

“Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively.”

“The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.”