Socrates against Athens : philosophy on trial

139 Pages·2001·9.183 MB·English

by  Colaiaco, James A.

SOCRATES
ATHENS
Also by James A. Colaiaco
Martin Luther King, Jr.: Apostle of Militant Nonviolence
J ames Fitzj ames Step hen and the Crisis of Victorian Thought Philosophy
on Trial
lAMES A. COLAIACO
Routledge
New York and London
iJnivsrsidad de Navarrs
Servicio de Bibliotecas
To Nancy, my kindred spirit
Published in 2001 by
Routledge
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New York, NY 10001
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Copyright © 2001 by Routledge
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Acknowledgments
A NYONE WHO STUDIES the trial of Socrates is indebted to the
many scholars who have contributed to our knowledge of
ancient Greek philosophy and culture. We are engaged in a col
lective effort to understand one of the greatest eras of human history. I
wish to thank my colleague, Ron Rainey, who read an early draft of my
work and offered valuable advice and encouragement. I am also grate
ful to Paul Eckstein, John Ross, Michael Shenefelt, and Phil Washburn
for their readings and suggestions. I wish to thank Dean Steve Curry and
the General Studies Program of New York University for providing me
with a semester to begin work on this book. The resources of the Bobst
Library of New York University, especially the Interlibrary Loan staff,
were of immense assistance. I thank my family, including my father,
Alfred Colaiaco, and Josephine Ruggeri and Maria Ruggeri, for their
abiding support. The memory of my mother, Helen Colaiaco, continues
to sustain me. I am grateful to Gayatri Patnaik, formerly an editor at
Routledge, for perceiving the value of my project. My greatest debt is to
my wife, Nancy Ruggeri Colaiaco, who read each draft of the book,
offering many suggestions for its improvement. During the past few vii
viii Acknowledgments
years, we have engaged in a dialogue about Socrates and ancient Athens.
I am deeply grateful for her insight, encouragement, and love. Such a
partner, in mind as well as spirit, is a true blessing. Needless to say, while
my book has benefited from the readings and assistance of others, I
alone bear responsibility for its contents.
James A. Colaiaco
Baldwin, New York
Contents
Acknowledgments vu
1. INTRODUCTION: A TRAGIC CONFRONTATION I
2. SETTING THE STAGE FOR THE TRIAL
Preliminaries
Historicity of the Apology
3. SOCRATES AND RHETORIC 23
Athens-City of Speech
Socrates' Opening Remarks: Dismantling Forensic Rhetoric
4. SOCRATES CONFRONTS HIS OLD ACCUSERS 37
Socrates and Aristophanes' Clouds
Socrates Denies He Is a Teacher of Natural Science
Socrates Denies He Is a Sophist
ix
x Contents Contents xi
5. SOCRATES' RADICAL PHILOSOPHIC MISSION 55 Parting Words to Enemies
The Delphic Oracle Parting Words to Friends
Socrates Examines the Politicians, Poets, and Craftsmen
The Mask of Ignorance 11. SOCRATES AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: THE CRITO
Solving the Riddle of the Oracle Socrates and Antigone
Socrates Dismisses the Shame Culture
6. THE ATHENIAN POLIS IDEAL 75 Justice and the Soul
The Funeral Oration of Pericles: Apotheosis of the Polis Socrates Argues for the Laws
Homeric Shame Culture The Skillful lronist
Democracy Appropriates Homer Fulfilling the Will of a Benevolent God
The Polis and the Individual
12. CONCLUSION: A CONFLICT UNRESOLVED 215
7. SOCRATES CONFRONTS HIS PRESENT ACCUSERS: I05
THE INTERROGATION OF MELETUS Notes
Corrupting the Young
Selected Bibliography
243
The Polis as Teacher
Athenian Polis Religion Index 257
Socrates and Impiety
8. SOCRATES BRINGS THE PHILOSOPHIC MISSION 131
INTO THE COURT
Death Bears No Sting
Caring for One's Soul
Stepping Up the Offensive
The Gadfly
9. THE POLITICS OF AN UNPOLITICAL MAN ISI
A Private Rather Than a Public Station
Socrates' Divine Voice
Defender of Justice
10. THE TRIAL CONCLUDES: SOCRATES CONDEMNED I67
The Corruption Charge Revisited
Rejecting an Appeal for Sympathy
Proposing a Counterpenalty
Truth Fails to Persuade
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION: A TRAGIC
CONFRONTATION
Ever since Socrates' trial, that is, ever since the polis tried the
philosopher, there has been a conflict between politics and phi
losophy that I'm attempting to understand.
-Hannah Arendt'
I N 399 B.C., THE GREAT PHILOSOPHER SOCRATES was tried in his
native city of Athens and condemned by a majority of citizen
jurors. He was sentenced to death for allegedly disbelieving in the
gods of the state, introducing new gods, and corrupting the young.
Having engaged in a mission to reform the Athenians, fostering the pur
suit of virtne and the improvement of the soul, Socrates threatened val
ues and beliefs regarded as essential to the unity and stability of the
city-called the polis by the ancient Greeks.' Athens, the world's first
democracy, renowned for its freedom of speech, silenced the philosopher
as a dangerous subversive. Socrates' indictment brought a climax to the
tragic confrontation between politics and philosophy that had been
building in Athens for years. Socrates represents individual conscience,
freedom of expression, and the moral claim that one's duty to obey God
I
2 SOCRATES AGAINST ATHENS Introduction 3
is superior to one's duty to obey the state. Unless the individual is free higher moral law of God. In the midst of his trial, Socrates hypothesizes
to exercise moral autonomy, the state easily degenerates into a tyranny. that the jury might offer to acquit him if he agrees to end his philosophic
Athens, on the other hand, represents the state seeking to protect itself mission. It was his life as a philosopher and moral critic that had led to
from a dissenting philosopher who undermined traditional communal his conflict with Athens. If he were to receive an offer of a conditional
values.' If individuals are free to follow the dictates of conscience in con acquittal, Socrates proclaims, he would reply: "Men of Athens, I honour
flict with accepted social norms and laws, order might dissolve into and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life
anarchy. Occurring in the wake of the Peloponnesian War, in which and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of phi
Athens suffered a crushing defeat by Sparta, the trial of Socrates sum losophy.'" Such a response, essentially a threat of civil disobedience,
moned many Athenians to reexamine values regarded as fundamental to undoubtedly angered many jurors. Indeed, a more bold challenge to
the city. Socrates' philosophic mission challenged his fellow citizens to state authority, occurring within a court that was understood to repre
tolerate a critical mind who, ironically, could only have been produced sent the sovereign citizenry, would be difficult to find in ancient Greek
in democratic Athens. history. Socrates, having already claimed a mission from God, to whom
In the Apology, plato has transmitted to us a re-creation of the trial he professed to owe obedience above all, had established a basis upon
of Socrates.' In contrast to the Apology, which shows Socrates as a dis which to justify resistance to state authority.
senter and civil disobedient, Plato's Crito shows him as an obedient cit In the mid-nineteenth-century, John Stuart Mill, in his famous essay
izen, refusing to escape the death sentence in order to uphold the laws On Liberty, lauded Socrates as a saint of rationalism and viewed him as
of the state. In fact, the Crito features a Socrates who appears to under a martyr for the cause of philosophy. According to Mill, a liberal in
mine his radical stance in the Apology. Given the conflicting images of defense of individual freedom, Athens had "condemned the man who
the philosopher, radical dissenter and obedient citizen, the question probably of all then born had deserved least of mankind to be put to
arises, who is the real Socrates? According to the conventional view, he death as a criminal." For Mill, a society unwilling to tolerate a high
was the victim of a democratic tyranny. But only in the modern era has degree of freedom of thought and discussion sacrifices the values essen
democracy been associated with liberalism. Ancient Athenian democ tial for the richest development of both the individual and the commu
racy, despite its value of freedom, had no conception of individual rights nity. Yet, Mill conceded, we have every reason to believe that the
and was frequently oppressive. Democracies depend upon the will of the Athenian court had "honestly found him [Socrates 1g uilty."6
majority for their survival. Yet the majority is not always right or just. Among the most famous depictions of the philosopher is a painting
Even in modern democracies, as the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville by Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, first exhibited in Paris
and John Stuart Mill remind us, freedom can be endangered by a in 1787 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
tyranny of the majority, in which the individual is subjected to oppres The scene depicted is from the last days of Socrates, as portrayed in
sion by law and public opinion. Individuals who have taken a stand Plato's Phaedo. We see Socrates sitting up on a bed surrounded by
against the state have often done so on the basis of conscience and belief devoted followers, reaching for the cup of poison hemlock that would
in a superordinate moral law. In the nineteenth century, Henry David end his life. He is pointing upward with his other hand, as if to empha
Thoreau protested the extension of slavery in the United States by dis size an idea in the philosophical discussion on the immortality of the
obeying the law to express his moral convictions. soul that, according to Plato, had occupied him and his companions dur
A similar conscientious stand is found in one of the most (a'molls ing his last days. The conflict between the philosopher and the state may
passages in the Apology, in which Socrates asserts categorically that he be perceived in the majesty of the figure of Socrates, the painting's cen
would disobey the state rather than abandon what he regarded as the ter, pointing up, maintaining his conviction that his commitment to his
4 SOCRATES AGAINST ATHENS Introduction 5
philosophic mission ranks above his duty to obey the state. The paint "Nothing can be more sublime than the bearing of Socrates during and
ing also depicts a consistent Socrates: By accepting the death penalty, he after his trial, and this sublimity must not be sentimentalized by the rep
remains faithful to Athens while adhering to his principles. resenting of Socrates as the victim of an ignorant mob. His death was
Produced in Paris just before the French Revolution, David's paint almost a Hegelian tragedy, a conflict in which both sides were right."8
ing has been interpreted by many as a depiction of Socrates the cham In the words of Romano Guardini: "The truth, which must be empha
pion of free thought crushed by tyranny. Nevertheless, the painting can si~ed again and again, is that here an epoch-a declining one, it is true,
be perceived as a celebration of Socrates symbolizing the ideal patriotic but still full of values-confronts a man who, great as he is and called
citizen who sacrifices his life for the state. According to this ideal, the to be a bringer of new things, disrupts by his spirit all that has hitherto
individual must be willing to place civic duty above personal interest. held sway. In the incompatibility of these two opposing sets of values
David's Socrates serenely prepares to depart stoically from this life. and forces lies the real tragedy of the situation."9 Those who see merit
Although regarded throughout history as an example of an individual in both sides usually hold that Socrates, although morally superior, was
who defied the state, Socrates could not be denigrated for disrespecting legally guilty. As J. B. Bury, one of the foremost modern historians of
the laws of Athens. This paradoxical image, disobedient yet respectful of ancient Greece, declared: "Socrates was not condemned unjustly
law and order, has inspired centuries-old disagreements about the according to the law. And that is the intensity of the tragedy. There have
philosopher's significance and his relationship with Athens. The inter been no better men than Socrates; and yet his accusers were perfectly
pretation of David's painting as a glorification of patriotic self-sacrifice right .... The execution of Socrates was the protest of the spirit of the
is articulated in the Crito. In this dialogue, Socrates' friend Crito old order against the growth of individualism.
"10
attempts to convince the philosopher, awaiting execution, to defy the While most people today sympathize with Socrates, the courageous
verdict of the Athenian court and flee Athens. Socrates agreed that the individual abiding by his moral principles, the fear among many
death sentence imposed upon him was unjust. But the philosopher's Athenians is understandable, for the philosopher posed a profound
devotion to Athens and the rule of law made escape unconscionable for threat to the city. Athens deserved its reputation as a city that cherished
him. Having been unjustly condemned, Socrates nevertheless willingly freedom; whereas people throughout the rest of the world were mere
surrendered his life to the city he loved. subjects, virtually the property of rulers, a significant number of the
Several moderu interpreters have viewed the trial of Socrates as the Athenian population were citizens, taking part in determining the laws
result of a tragic collision between two defensible positions. According that governed the community. While the Persian and Egyptian empires
to G. W. F. Hegel, the essence of tragedy is a conflict not so much were ruled by the few for the benefit of the few, Athens set the standard
between characters as between viewpoints, each rational and justifiable, of a direct, participatory democracy. As its great leader Pericles pro
yet lacking a more comprehensive vision that would have encompassed claimed, Athens was the school for all of Greece, a role model for those
the good in the opposing side. As A. C. Bradley summarized Hege!'s who sought cultural and political excellence. The conflict between
view: "The competing forces are both in themselves rightful, and so far Socrates and Athens was not between absolute good and evil. To see
the claim of each is equally justified; but the right of each is pushed into Socrates as an example of a perfectly innocent individual crushed by a
a wrong, because it ignores the right of the other, and demands that tyrannical state is to reduce the trial to a mere morality play. The
absolute sway which belongs to neither alone, but to the whole of which Athenians, on the whole, were neither unintelligent nor malevolent.
each is but a part."7 According to this interpretation, each sid" while Once the historical and cultural context is understood, the Athenian
justified in itself, becomes wrong in its inflexible one-sidedness. H. D. F. position becomes more substantial. At the same time, Socrates' moral
Kitto sees merit in the positions of both the philosopher and his city: superiority grows larger when viewed from the vantage point of modern
6 SOCRATES AGAINST ATHENS Introduction 7
liberalism. In defense of Athens, history has shown that even the best flicts and inherent contradictions in Athenian society. Jean-Pierre
societies sometimes betray their principles. In fact, placed in a similar sit Vernant observes that Greek tragedy explored the inherent tension
uation, with one's fundamental values and beliefs under assault in a time between the polis, represented by the anonymous chorus of citizens, and
of crisis, many people today would probably vote to condemn Socrates. the exceptional individual, represented by the tragic hero. While in ear
The confrontation between Socrates and Athens is similar to that lier history, the exceptional character stood out as the Homeric hero of
dramatized in Sophocles' Antigone, one of the greatest masterpieces of the Greek epics, during the fifth century B.C., when Athens sought to
Greek literature. The tragedies of the historical Socrates and the mythi subordinate the individual to the community, the exploits of the indi
cal Antigone arose out of their being caught between two contradictory vidualistic hero were regarded as a potential threat to the unity of the
paths of duty-one's obligation to conscience versus one's obligation to polis. Only by taming the heroic individual could the community sur
the state. Like Antigone, Socrates could not fulfill one duty without vio vive. The Homeric hero had become a problem."
lating the other. He had to choose. The conflict dramatized by In 399 B.C., therefore, Athens, the city that gave birth to tragedy as
Sophocles' Antigone resonated deeply with the Athenians. Socrates a literary genre, became the scene of a real-life tragedy involving a con
probably saw the play, and it undoubtedly exerted a powerfnl effect flict between an exceptional individual, Socrates the philosopher-hero,
upon the Athenians, including Plato. Citizens brought what they had and the state. As with drama, the trial of Socrates took place in the civic
learned abont difficult civic issues from the theater into their delibera center of Athens and included a public performance before a large audi
tions in the Assembly and their judgments in the courts." Having to par ence of citizens who served as judgesY The dramatic aspects of Socrates'
ticipate often and in different forums-evaluating dramas in the theater, trial were recognizable to his contemporaries. Life in the Athenian polis
weighing decisions in the Assembly, and judging the arguments of liti was profoundly theatrical.'" Indeed, the culture of classical Athens has
gants in the lawcourts-the Athenian citizenry was among the most been characterized as a "performance culture. "19 Athenians saw them
informed and proficient in history. selves as performing on a stage, as it were, competing for individual
While Greek tragedy is said to have died with Sophocles and honor, fame, wealth, and power in a number of public forums. Hence,
Euripides, a study of Plato's Apology reveals that the trial of Socrates is politics, law, religion, athletics, music, and poetry "shared with the the
a dramatic agon, or contest. In fact, in Athens the trial was called an atre an essentially public and performative nature, so much so that one
agon tes dikes, a contest of right,12 The courtroom became a theater, the form of cultural expression merged easily with another. "20 The agones,
scene of a contest between Socrates and the city, between philosophy or conflicts, of the Athenian lawcourts exerted a significant influence
and politics. Athenian drama was not merely a public performance upon Greek drama, where characters are often featured presenting
attended by those interested in spectacles; theater occupied an integral opposing speeches." At the same time, the theater also affected behavior
place in the life of the polis and was attended by virtually all citizens as in the democratic Assembly and the lawcourts, where individual speak
part of their civic duty." Like the spectators in the theater, the Athenian ers, as if on stage, sought to persuade large audiences by arousing emo
jurors represented the collective citizenry, participating in an institution tions and projecting the appropriate character.22
that reinforced their identity as a gronp. As William Arrowsmith The trial of Socrates transformed the life of Plato, who was twenty
explains, the Athenians created a "theater of ideas" that became "the eight years old at the time. It turned him away from politics, which he
supreme instrument of cultural instruction, a democratic paideia com saw as conducive to disorder, what the Greeks called stasis, in favor of
plete in itself."" Christian Meier argues that tragedy and politics were philosophy. In the Republic, Plato designed a city that would never be
intimately related in Athens." Tragedy not only validated traditi~nal val subject to the kind of confrontation that led to the death of Socrates.
ues, reinforcing group cohesion, but also exposed and questioned con- Nevertheless, Plato, the product of a city with a vivid sense of dramatic
8 SOCRATES AGAINST ATHENS Introduction 9
conflict, could not fail to grasp the drama inherent in Socrates' trial. To argue, the Crito may be read in a way that preserves the integrity of the
Plato, the conflict between Socrates and Athens reflected the profound radical Socrates presented in the Apology.
antagonism between philosophy and politics, between a morality of The purpose of this book is to provide an interdisciplinary exami
inflexible goodness and a state willing to subordinate justice to power nation of the conflict between Socrates and Athens, focusing upon the
and self-interest. With the trial of Socrates, Plato and the Athenians par Apology and the Crito. As a companion study to these works, this book,
ticipated in a drama perhaps more disturbing than any they had wit designed for general readers, not only analyzes the arguments and teach
nessed in the theater, one that reflected the profound tensions present in ings of Socrates but also provides the historical, political, and cultural
the city after a devastating defeat in war. Socrates was challenged to context essential for an understanding of his triaL" This book also inter
demonstrate to the Athenians that philosophy was valuable and consis prets the Apology and the Crito according to the unifying theme of a
tent with the welfare of the community. At the same time, the Athenians tragic conflict between philosophy and politics: philosophy, not in the
were challenged to comprehend the moral benefits of philosophy, a chal academic sense, but as a way of life; philosophy, not as doctrine, but as
lenge made more difficult because it occurred in a time of political cri critical thinking; philosophy, not as a flight from reality, but deeply
sis, where the center had not held and things had fallen apart. engaged with issues vital to the state. Politics, in Athens of the fifth cen
Unlike the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the tragic tury B.C., was essentially power politics, in which the just state, like the
confrontation between Socrates and Athens took place not in the safe just person, was regarded as one who helped friends and harmed ene
confines of the theater, couched in the symbolic language of ancient mies. This politics led to the Peloponnesian War, in which two mighty
myth and set in a foreign city, but in an Athenian lawcourt iu which cit empires, Athens and Sparta, fought over mastery of the Greek world.
izens pondered issues that directly affected their fate. Plato was uniquely But the war sounded the death knell for the ancient Greek city. In con
gifted to re-create this court battle. According to one tradition, related trast, Socrates had a vision of a politics infused with ethics, with the
by Diogenes Laertius, in his youth Plato had composed dithyrambs, lyric state placing the pursuit of virtue above the pursuit of power, wealth,
poems, and tragedies and was about to compete for a prize in tragedy and glory.
when, upon hearing Socrates speak in front of the theater of Dionysus, The work of the historian Thucydides will serve as an important
he consigned his works to the flames and took up philosophy." True or source for Athenian values during the age of Socrates. The genius of
not, the story underscores Plato's dramatic gifts, which found expression Thucydides managed to capture the tragic nature of the conflict between
in his many dialogues. In reading the Apology, one is drawn into the Athens and Sparta. Like Plato, he could not escape the influence of
text. Although not a dialogue in the conventional sense, it engages the Greek drama as he sought a lens through which to view the moral col
reader just as much as Plato's other works. One partakes vicariously in lapse of Athens during the Peloponnesian War. The lasting influence of
the conflict between the philosopher and his city. The reader is both a the ancient Greek conception of the hero, as found in Homer, will also
juror, evaluating the charges against Socrates, and part of the audience constitute important background. We shall see, moreover, that the
upon whom the philosopher exercises his mission. Readers become Apology offers a new conception of the hero, that of Socrates the
active agents, challenged, like the Athenians, to reexamine their own philosopher-hero, a person of profound moral integrity, committed to
lives and values.24 the pursuit of the truth and the perfection of his soul. Whenever instruc
Like the Apology, the Crito compels the reader to be active, espe tive, ideas from other dialogues of Plato will be incorporated into our
cially because, at least on the surface, it presents a picture of ~ocrates analysis, not so much as a record of the teachings of the historical
much more consonant with the Athenian values that he challedged and Socrates, but as a retrospective commentary on the life and teachings of
undermined throughout his philosophic life and at his trial. As we shall the master by his greatest student.