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Impiety And Corrupted In Plato's Apology

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In the dialogue Apology by Plato, Socrates who was Plato’s teacher was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. The author talks about what happened at his mentor’s trial. This dialogue is one of the most exact when it comes to what happened in the courtroom, for Plato was present there, and he saw everything. After the jury decided that Socrates was guilty they sentenced him to death; however, they offered Socrates to be exiled as an alternate punishment. Socrates talks about how he believes in spirits, how he does not get paid to speak, and how he is not responsible for what others decide to believe or follow; in order, to defend himself against the two charges.
The trial took place in 399 BC, where Socrates spent an entire …show more content…

Socrates cannot be corrupting the youth because he does not get paid to spread his wisdom and speak his mind. Therefore, a man that does not get paid to do something is not considered a teacher. “Furthermore, the young men who follow me around of their own free will, those who have most leisure, the sons of the very rich, take pleasure in hearing people questioned; they themselves often imitate me and try to question others. I think they find an abundance of men who believe they have some knowledge but know little or nothing.” (Plato, 28). In the following quote Socrates states that young men enjoy listening to him; therefore, he cannot pay the price for what they decide to learn from him. “Now if I profited from this by charging a fee for my advice, there would be some sense to it, but you can see for yourselves that, for all their shameless accusations, my accusers have not been able to bring forward a witness to say that I have ever received a fee or ever asked for one.” (Plato, 35). After he finished defending himself, Socrates questions why the prosecutors do not have any witnesses that can say they paid Socrates for him to talk to

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