Jazmin Martinez
Rhetorical
Précis
GSI:
Jerilyn Sambrooke
Apology
In Plato’s Apology, Socrates is arguing
for his life. After being accused by Meletus and Anytus, Socrates defends
himself; he says it is not for his own sake “but for yours [Athenians]”. Socrates’s
argument is that the Athenians will suffer collectively more by ridding
themselves of him, than what he will suffer by being put to death.
Speaking to his fellow Athenians,
Socrates adheres a warning and attempts to provoke them with his words, which
is the very reason why Socrates is being prosecuted in the first place. He
states that by condemning him to death, the Athenians are either sinning
against the God or “lightly reject[ing] his boon”. Socrates’s vocation to
search for true wisdom was bestowed upon him by god, therefore by killing him
the prosecutors are interfering with the gods wishes and simultaneously
executing an innocent man. Socrates’s search for wisdom is not a crime for it
is what he was destined to do.
Socrates goes on and uses the analogy of
the gadfly; Socrates is the gadfly, and the Athens are the steed. Despite the
gadfly being so small in stature compared to the massive steed it has the
ability to pester the beast. Socrates is only one man, but yet he has the power
to “arouse and persuade and reproach” the state. He is seen as a nuisance and inconvenience.
Socrates’s constant questioning disrupts the normalized status quo and by questioning
those who are affluent and possess money and power their authority is
challenged which fills them with frustration. Socrates says that he is the
person, the gadfly, that awakens Athenians form their sleep and if they condemned
him to death then they “will sleep on for the remainder of [their] lives”
because they “will not easily find another like [him]”, Socrates states for the
second time that he is irreplaceable, and an individual like himself seldom
comes around. The only way Athenians would ever be woken up is by another gadfly
if God were to choose to give another fly to them. By executing Socrates they
would end up doing more damage to themselves than to him. Death is inevitable
but living in ignorance is what the Athenians are condemning themselves to by
killing Socrates.
Socrates is like a god given pest and his
power to irritate and his urge to question comes to him through a sort of
divine light. The evidence that provides proof for his divine vocation is found
through his poverty. Again he states that he is not like other men, he does not
seek money for his so called wisdom, he instead speaks to people “like a
father or elder brother”, this act was not a common occurrence and by stating
this, Socrates again shows his vital importance to Athens and if condemned it
is society that will suffer, not him.
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