ApologyPlato
About Apology
The records Socrates's defense speech at his trial in 399 BC. He faces charges of corrupting the youth and introducing new gods. He does not grovel.
Socrates explains how his philosophical mission began. The oracle at Delphi declared that no one was wiser than Socrates. Puzzled, he set out to test the claim by questioning those reputed to be wise: politicians, poets, craftsmen. He found that each group possessed some competence but mistook it for comprehensive wisdom. Socrates alone knew that he did not know. This is the meaning of human wisdom: the recognition of its own limits.
The defense is also a provocation. Socrates compares himself to a gadfly stinging a sluggish horse, argues that his accusers cannot harm him in any way that matters, and proposes as his "penalty" free meals at the public table. When the jury condemns him to death, he accepts the verdict without recanting. "The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being."
The establishes philosophy as a vocation that may demand everything from the one who pursues it, including his life.