The history of mankind is full of controversial points connected with the people who were more educated than the rest. Being out of the mass of average human beings always hurts as people do not like admitting that there are other people smarter than they are. Socrates is one of the first clever and educated people who were wrongly punished only because they spoke of real things that no one else understood. Therefore, the argument Socrates suggested for his defense in the Athens court of law was directed at the rationales of those people as Socrates was trying to show them that he spoke only of the things he knew and anyone other could have known. This is why Socrates stresses the importance of examination and learning for the very lives of human beings.
Accordingly, the essence of the aforesaid Socrates’ argument in the court is the focus of the Apology written by the student of Socrates, Plato, sometime after the court decision was taken and Socrates was killed. In this argument, Socrates claims that “the unexamined life is not worth living for men” (Plato, p. 41), meaning that people should always desire to learn what they do not understand. This desire for education and knowledge should be the focus of everyone’s life. And, moreover, this desire does not mean any deviation from the accepted religion, betrayal of the Gods, etc. Faith and knowledge are different things. If faith is a spiritual phenomenon, knowledge is basically a practical one as it helps people understand the world they live in and love it more. But Socrates’ ideas were ahead of the time, and the philosopher ended up sentenced to death at the age of seventy.
The background to Socrates’ argument and to the court trial, on the whole, was unprecedented, as for the modern times, claim that Socrates was to blame for “wrongdoing in that he busies himself studying things in the sky and below the earth; he makes the worst into the strongest argument, and he teaches these same things to others” (Plato, p. 24). Thus, people who were afraid of Socrates’ intelligence and excessive, as they thought, knowledge, sued the philosopher basically for the fact that he knew too much and wanted to know more. No matter how absurd this reason for the court trial might sound today, in the ancient world of religious domination and fear for the natural phenomena the people who could easily explain them were considered the rivals of the rest of the society.
However, even despite the fact that Socrates failed to convince the court of his being not guilty of any crime, there is a substantial rational core in his idea of overall education and its promotion among people. It can be observed throughout the apology by Plato that Socrates was trying to show his thirst for knowledge not for interfering in some divine matters. Understanding, however, that the people he was talking to were reluctant to believe him, Socrates tries to explain the kind of reputation he had by the wisdom that people interpreted in a wrong way: “What has caused my reputation is none other than a certain kind of wisdom. What kind of wisdom? Human wisdom, perhaps” (Plato, p. 25). Thus, showing to the court that his reputation was misinterpreted, Socrates tried to stress the importance of learning, knowledge, and wisdom in his life. This wisdom was harmless for humans, except those angry that they know less than Socrates.
Although implemented in the wrong place and at the wrong time, the argument by Socrates is a rather strong one. The philosopher tries to build his defense in the court not by merely begging the jury not to take his life and not by fierce disputes. Socrates appeals to the rational thinking of the court members and people of Athens and tries to explain his vision of the world. Being asked about his shame and fear of the possible death, Socrates answered that the person fully committed to what he/she does can be considered only a hero, but not the shame of his/her nation: “This is the truth of the matter, men of Athens: wherever a man has taken a position he believes to be the best,…there he must I think to remain and face danger, without a thought for death or anything else, rather than disgrace” (Plato, p. 33). Drawing from this, the firm commitment of Socrates is the best proof of the correctness of his view on the world and the role of knowledge in it. Having been punished for the desire for knowledge, Socrates remained a hero for the numbers of next generations of people.
To conclude, education and knowledge have always been controversial phenomena in the history of mankind. Socrates was one of the first people to be punished for the simple fact that they knew more than others. Socrates’ claim about the absence of the goal of living without examination was rather a strong one, but it did not find many supporters in ancient Athens. Although Socrates was sentenced to death for his desire for knowledge, his views remained to be the inspirations for many people striving to learn as much as possible about this world.
References
Plato. (2018). Apology. Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing.