Pondering the Trial and Execution of Socrates with Xenophon and Plato

Today we will learn and reflect on the works of Xenophon and Plato on the trial and execution of Socrates. Now you may ask, how will studying the accounts of the trial and death of Socrates improve my soul? Well, Socrates teaches us that when we reach the end of our life, our accomplishments, the toys and stuff that we've accumulated, the positions we've obtained, will mean very little. We can only die a good death, free of regret and remorse, free of terror and fear, if we have truly lived a godly life. At the end of our lives, all that will matter is who we are, whether we lived a godly life, not for ourselves, but lived our life for our loved ones and for our neighbors. Many questions come to mind when we ponder the death of Socrates. What actually happened at the trial of Socrates? Why did the citizens of Athens condemn Socrates to death on trumped-up charges? These trumped-up charges brought up against Socrates were that he showed impiety towards the gods and that he was corrupting the youth. We actually have two accounts by his students of the trial of Socrates, the first by Plato and then a later account by Xenophon. We will ponder both of these accounts. Although Plato is more direct in the Apology and the Crito dialogues than a lot of his other dialogues, there are always puzzles to ponder in all of the Platonic dialogues. We always like to quote from the ancient friends ourselves and we encourage you to read them for yourself. At the end of our talk, we will discuss the main sources we used for this video. Please share this video with your friends. We welcome interesting questions and comments. Sometimes these generate short videos of their own. Let us learn and reflect together. There is no doubt that Plato is a philosophical and literary genius. Plato is still the undisputed master of the dialogue. But we will start with Xenophon's account because his is the less clever and the more boring account of the trial of Socrates and thus may be the more trustworthy account. It is clear that Xenophon read Plato's accounts of the events of the trial of Socrates and he largely agreed with the details. But he obviously desired to defend both the reputation and the teachings of his friend and teacher Socrates. And Xenophon answers more emphatically than Plato the charges brought up against him in his trial, in his memoirs of Socrates. Xenophon in the first paragraph of his Socrates defense tells us that Socrates was intentionally arrogant in his tone in his trial, not because he was foolish, but because he decided that at this point in his life, being 70 years old, death was preferable to life. Being truly arrogant, Xenophon's Socrates shows his hubris by proclaiming that, if revealing the opinion I have of myself annoys the jurors, then I will be choosing to die rather than to remain alive with freedom and beg as an alternative to death and a vastly inferior life. Now Socrates had often said that he had a personal daemon or divine voice that warned him when what he was about to say or do would anger the gods. Now his enemies at his trial accused him of introducing a new deity to Athens when he spoke of his daemon. But Xenophon argues that this personal daemon is no more a new deity than is the oracle at Delphi. Xenophon ends his work Socrates defense by observing that although his arrogance in court forced the jurors to condemn him, that Socrates did die the good stoic death. Socrates fortitude was obvious since he decided that death was better for him than life. He showed no weakness in the face of death just as he had never turned his back on any other good thing in his life but waited for death cheerfully and discharged his final duty in good spirits. Xenophon Socrates is more of a stoic philosopher which makes sense as we learn from Diogenes of Laertes in his Lies of Eminent Philosophers that Socrates was the teacher of the Cynic Philosopher Antisthenes. Later the Cynic School of Philosophy gave birth to Stoicism. In his memoirs Xenophon seeks to show us a side of Socrates that is not as heavily emphasized in the Platonic dialogues on the trial and execution of Socrates. He shows how Socrates ceased to instruct rather than corrupt the youth in his students and how Socrates is indeed pious towards the gods. We have several other blogs in the moral teachings of the stoic Socrates and Xenophon's writings including Discussion of Xenophon by St. Justin the Martyr. Responding to the charge that Socrates showed in piety towards the gods, Xenophon says that Socrates believed that the gods do care for men but not in the way that most people think they do. They suppose that the gods know some things but not others but Socrates believed that the gods know everything both words and actions and unspoken intentions and that they are present everywhere and communicate to people about all kinds of human affairs. And in response to the charge that Socrates corrupted the youth, Xenophon says that Socrates was the most self-disciplined of men in respect to his sexual and other appetites living a modest life with few possessions. So if he himself was like this how could he have made others irreverent or criminal or greedy or sensual or work shy, asks Xenophon. And Xenophon also says Socrates rescued many from these states by inspiring them with a desire for goodness and offering them hope that they could truly become good. But he never undertook to teach how this could be done. But by obviously being such a person Socrates made those who spent their time with him hope that if they followed his example they would develop the same character. Socrates charged no fees for teaching philosophy and called those who charged fees self-enslavers because they were obliged to converse with those who paid the fee. Socrates expressed surprise that a man who offered to teach goodness should demand to be paid for it. Likewise Xenophon says this also Socrates believed that those of his associates who accepted the principles which he himself approved would be good friends all their life long to himself and to one another. Xenophon says that just as those who do not exercise their bodies cannot carry out their physical duties so those who do not exercise their characters cannot carry out their moral duties. Xenophon Socrates much like the Stokes talks about the gods of Greece almost as if they were really a concerned monotheistic god. Xenophon tells us that Socrates prayed to the god simply to give him what was good recognizing that the gods know best what is good for them. He thought that to pray for gold or silver or unlimited power or stuff like that was just like praying for a throw of the dice or winning the lottery or anything else that is obviously unpredictable. It would be a bad thing according to Socrates quoted by Xenophon it would be a bad thing if the gods took more pleasure in great sacrifices than in small things because the gods do not favor the wealthy or the wicked. On contrary Socrates believed that the gods appreciated most the honors paid to them by the most devout people and Socrates denounced the folly of others whose actions go against the god's communications because they are trying to avoid the disapproval of men. Xenophon's quote reminds us of a parables of the widow's might Luke when Jesus looked up and saw the rich people putting their gifts in the treasury. He saw a poor widow putting two small copper coins. Truly I tell you this poor widow has put in more than all of them for all of them have contributed out of their abundance but she out of her poverty has put all that she had to live on which is very similar to what Socrates has said. Now we will ponder the main source for the trial and execution of Socrates, Plato and his dialogues. Socrates is best known for his most famous dictum that the unexamined life is not worth living. The main consequence of this is that in his dialogues Plato rarely has Socrates coming out and tell you exactly how you ought to think. No no no Plato wants you to ponder and examine the dialogues for their meaning which is the essence of the Socratic method and that is why many modern professors prefer Plato to Xenophon. You can never be entirely sure what Plato is trying to tell you which has led to thousands of doctoral dissertations over the past few centuries and future centuries. Plato encourages all to think for ourselves. Plato encourages us as does Socrates to ponder the dialogues for whatever moral lessons we can mine for them to improve our souls. Following the lead of Xenophon we can surmise two threads in the Platonic dialogues regarding the trial and execution of Socrates. We should ponder the question of whether Socrates was unjustly accused and convicted of the charges of corrupting the youth and showing in piety towards the gods. On the other hand whether the arrogance and hubris of Socrates himself was a cause of his eventual execution which causes us to ask other questions. Was Socrates truly virtuous in his outrageous behavior or we might ask is it always good to be a gadfly who irritates everyone they encounter. First of all let's give some background between the difference between the Athenian court system and the modern court system so we can truly appreciate the trial of Socrates. There are many differences for instance in the modern world we have juries of 12 people and carefully selected jurors but juries in the ancient Athens had several hundred jurors plus one chosen randomly for serious offenses like the charges levied against Socrates. There would be 501 jurors and the other difference is there were very few rules other than time limits for both the defense and the prosecution for their speeches that applied in the ancient world. There was no rules of evidence. It was much easier to bring false charges in the ancient court system. There was no rules for what is acceptable testimony. There was no rules for evidence. Also we need to give you some background about the peculiar time of the Socratic dialogues which was in a period after Athens lost the Peloponnesian war to Sparta. After their defeat the Athenians were expecting to suffer the fate that faced most losing sides in the ancient world that the women and children were being enslaved and deported that the men would either be slain or enslaved in the silver mines or other life-condemning work but the Spartan general Lysander spared Athens citing how Athens had helped save the Greeks in their wars against the Persians in prior times but the Spartan general Lysander did disarm Athens tearing down its walls permitting the city only a handful of trireme warships and installing a pro-Spartan oligarchy of 30 tyrants. Some of these tyrants including Critias were former students of Socrates. After a few years the Athenians overthrew the 30 tyrants and then re-established their democracy but politically they were deeply insecure they were looking for scapegoats and Socrates especially since he was seen as an enemy of democracy was a good scapegoat. This was not a good time to be a gadfly. The Athenians did not want to look into themselves to find out who was at fault for their defeat. Also Socrates in his speech emphasized that he was not the same Socrates as was spoofed in Aristophanes comedy The Clouds. The false charges at his trial were likely inspired by the slanders brought against them and there is another video and blog about about The Clouds that we invite you to examine. Now that we've examined the backstory behind the trial of Socrates let's examine the trial itself. Socrates summarized the affidavit in Plato. What did the slanderer say? Socrates is an evildoer and meddlesome who pries into matters under the earth and in heaven making worse appear better teaching flawed doctrines. Socrates admits he is a bit of a gadfly and asserts that is the role appointed to him by the gods to be the gadfly of Athens to be its conscience for the force of the citizens to ponder on the nature of justice and virtue so they can become better citizens of the polis. Socrates opens his defense amazingly by noting how his friend had asked the oracle at Delphi whether there was any man wiser than Socrates and the priestess answered that there was no wiser man and then Socrates asks in the dialogue why do i mention this because i am going to explain to you why i have such an evil reputation when i heard this i said to myself what can the god mean how can we interpret this riddle for i know that i have no wisdom small or great what then did he mean when he says that i am the wisest of men and yet he is a god and cannot lie that would be against his nature why Socrates would make this Delphic oracle in the response a keystone of his defense is puzzling the first question is obvious did the friend accurately retell the response of the oracle the Delphic oracle usually provides answers that are a little bit more cryptic than this for example the most famous example when the persians and of prior generation were invading greece and the athenians asked the oracle what they should do they got this response flee you are doomed but athens decided to ask for a second oracle and another response was uttered trust in your wooden walls the athenians puzzled over this and in response they decided to evacuate the women and children of athens to a neighboring island while the men fought the persians in their fleet of triremes and these wooden triremes was their true wooden wall winning against all odds against the mighty persian empire now other athenians on the other hand trusted in the wooden walls guarding the acropolis barricading themselves inside those foolish athenians were massacred by the persians but at other times in greek history the oracle did provide direct answers which leads to a deeper question even if the oracle were consulted and the response of the oracle was reported accurately why would socrates make this oracle a key part of his defense did he think this would help his cause many who listened at his trial would see this as arrogance and hubris maybe plato is providing us with a lesson on how not to defend yourself in athenian trial maybe plato is angry at socrates for his poor defense just as he has crito saying that he was angry with socrates for his defense in his dialogue speaking of hubris socrates describes how he wandered the streets of athens searching for the wise man he encountered a politician convinced of his wisdom and socrates recalled when i began to talk to him i could not help but thinking that he was not really wise although he was thought wise by many and still wiser by himself and i tried to be helpful by explaining to him that he thought himself wise but was not really wise the consequence of this was that he hated me and his anger and enmity was shared by several who overheard our conversation so i left him saying to myself as i went away although i do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good i am better off than he is for he knows nothing and thinks that he knows but i know neither know nor think that i know so this is the running joke in the platonic dialogues socrates pretends he doesn't know anything so he runs around the marketplace of athens outling people asking them questions about justice and other such topics pretending not to know anything and they get really irritated when he trips them up with his relentless leading questions that make them look like fools who really don't know anything and there's another running commentary that it is the unexamined life that is not worth living but this can't be totally true because most people live their lives going to church or believing whatever the preach tells them to believe and as long as they don't have to give up too much of their stuff or too much of their selfishness they're really okay with that the reality is that most people are just not intellectuals they want to have the culture or their peers tell them what they should believe which leads us to the question are glasses really necessary for salvation now there are very few people in the dialogues who even truly want to examine their life and socrates just irritates them when he tries to point this out now socrates has a noble project he says in the dialogues the truly wise knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing the truly wise goes about the world obedient to the god searching and inquiring into the wisdom of everyone whether citizen or stranger who appears to be wise and if he is not wise then you can humbly have him realize his error in judgment but if we lose the quotes here because socrates really said if he is not wise then in in vindication of the oracle i show him that he is not wise now socrates responds to those who question why he pursues a course that may result in his untimely death he says this in the dialogues a good man ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying he ought only to consider whether he is doing right or wrong acting the part of a good man or of a bad one this may be socrates strategy but the challenge is to encourage your neighbor to realize his errors and mature in his wisdom on his own without you preaching to him now we could decide to copy socrates and be a gadfly but if we do that perhaps we shouldn't bite quite as hard as he did Plato tells us that in his trial two-thirds of the 501 jurors were necessary to find Socrates guilty of the charges brought against him but that he was convicted by a narrow margin of just 30 votes ponder this if there had been 30 pure guilty verdicts uh two millennia ago out of these 501 votes then millions of scholars and school boys would not have been able to debate for millennia why the Athenians executed Socrates if only they knew amazingly in the trial more jurors voted to execute the gadfly Socrates and voted for his conviction the reason for this is Socrates continued his arrogance and hubris and some background here in Athens the condemned defendant was asked to deliver a speech where he could suggest a lesser penalty and often defendants at this point in the trial they would bring their wife and kids in for the jurors to show some pity to them but this was something that Socrates would not do no no no Socrates had a better idea Socrates starts his sentencing speech in the dialogue with this if you kill me you will not find a substitute for I am a gadfly given to the state by God so what he's saying is he's a God-given gadfly how lucky you are Athenians for the state is a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very great size and requires to be stirred into life I am the gadfly which God has attached to the state and all day long and in all places I am always fastening upon you arousing and persuading and reproaching you you will not easily find another like me and therefore I would advise you to spare me so yeah that's right Socrates wants them to spare him so that he can be a gadfly for them for the rest of their lives Socrates guarantees he will be condemned to death in a sentencing speech by this suggestion of an alternate punishment and Socrates asks what would be a reward suitable to a poor man who is your benefactor who desires leisure in order to instruct you there can be no reward so fitting as free dinner for several years and the Britannium which is the prize which is only provided to winners at the Olympic Games this is a reward which he deserves far more than the winning athlete in the horse of the chariot race whether the chariots were drawn by two horses or many but soon afterwards Socrates backpedals and says well yeah his friends will pay a fine of 30 large gold coins but hardly anyone really hears that offer now in the dialogue the Crito Crito tells Socrates that he can bribe the jailer so he can escape to thieves or some other city but Socrates challenges them to demonstrate that this would be virtuous but the argument Crito offers is not really a compelling reason to bribe the jailer but perhaps it would have been a compelling argument in the trial and Crito argues I do not think you are at all justified in betraying your own life when you might be saved in acting thus you are playing into the hands of your enemies who are hurrying to your destruction further you are deserting your children denying them the education that you could offer them instead you will leave their education to their wits and leaving them to the usual fate of orphans no man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nurture and education Crito continues but you appear to be choosing the easier part not the better or manlier part which would have been more becoming to one who professes to care for virtue in all his actions like yourself Socrates this trial should have never taken place or you might have been managed this trial quite differently perhaps the mythical Socrates had no need for humility being God's gadfly gift to the Athens but I agree with Crito it's difficult to argue why the earthly Socrates would not have brought his wife and three boys to sit in the stands and say to the jurors I refuse to whine and beg and humiliate myself with tears for I have done nothing deserving this punishment and certainly have done nothing to deserving of death but I would like to point out that my wife and young son sitting here a reminder that there is a very real consequence if you sentence me to death and that is you will deny my family their husband and father in the few years I have left in my life I mean this plea can be made with dignity I agree with Crito not making this plea is hubris on the part of Socrates that needlessly condemns him to death this hubris and this pride in this possession kind of reminds me of the story of two American GIs that were captured and interrogated by the Nazis soon after D-Day the first GI not haughtily proclaimed so the Geneva Convention says he only needs to tell him his name rank and serial number and so the Nazis shoot him the next GI says says well I'm going to be a little more cooperative so he tells the Nazis his name rank and serial number plus he eagerly tells the Nazis everything that he knows that they know already so they let him go but Socrates was right that Crito's argument was weak on the day after sentencing there were practical difficulties if he suggested a common Greek punishment which is exile for a number of years Socrates was already 70 years old and Thebes or any other democratic city state would be tempted to accuse him of corrupting their youth as well the dialogue doesn't mention it maybe he didn't have any guest host relationships with families in other cities since he rarely left Athens since Socrates taught his students that they should respect the laws of the city he reasoned he would lose respect if he himself ignored the laws of the city even when he had been falsely condemned of a crime he did not commit and fled the city like a coward it would be better to stay and die the good death that all Greeks respect and indeed Socrates did not fear death and in the dialogues it says that Socrates looked forward to conversing with any ancient hero who has suffered death through unjust punishment I can continue my search into true and false knowledge in the next world as I have searched in this world and I shall find out who is wise and who pretends to be wise and who is not in the end of his speech to the jurors who will decide whether he will live or die Socrates says judges be of good cheer about death and know for certain that no evil can happen to a good man either in life or death Socrates is forgiving I am not angry with my condemners or with my accusers they have done me no harm although they did not mean to do me any good for this I gently blame them the two main sources I have used is first of all Penguin Classics has an excellent edition of Xenophon with many of his dialogues and conversations of Socrates with many good introductions footnotes over the years I've always liked Penguin Classics and also Barnes and Nobles has an excellent essential dialogues of Plato the Barnes and Noble edition updates the classic translation by Benjamin Jowett The Great Courses has several excellent lecture series on Socrates and the Platonic Dialogues The Masters of Greek Thought by Professor Robert Bartlett is one of my favorites because he shares my love of Xenophon who is much more loved in the ancient world than he is in the modern world his set of lectures begins with lectures on the works of Xenophon which is remarkable another interesting set of lectures is by Professor Sigru he is as entertaining as he is amazing because he views Plato as almost his guiding religion so his enthusiasm by Plato is somewhat entertaining and surprising I would also like to mention that The Great Courses Plus it also has many excellent videos on Plato and I'll show you the screenshot so you can get a flavor of some of the videos it includes and let's not forget the painting that was in the thumbnail The Death of Socrates this was a painting by Jacques David I hope I pronounced it right in 1787 this painting has its own Wikipedia page and I put the link in the description along with a link to a YouTube video it came across it also talks about the painting and you can see in the Socrates has behind him most of his disciples he is about to grasp the poisonous hemlock drink from the reluctant jailer who's looking away now to his left Plato sits he's not physically present at the death of Socrates in the dialogue but he's present in the painting as the narrator of the dialogues he's there in more in spirit than in person please click on the link for our blog on Xenophon and Plato and The Death of Socrates and also on the links for other YouTube videos like the other Stoic philosophers and on the Aristophanes and his play The Cloud which played such a great part in the trial of Socrates and other interesting videos that will broaden your knowledge and improve your soul thank you