Fathers and Sons Reading Together III
Questions to guide your reading in Plato’s Apology of Socrates
The “Fathers and Sons Reading Together” program is a carefully curated list of poetic, literary, historical, religious, and philosophical texts intended to be read by fathers in concert with their sons. The goal is to assist fathers and sons in their joint study of the good life. Please consider sharing a link to the Gymnasium with (or forwarding this email to) anyone you think would benefit from these resources.
The most immediate question facing any reader of the Apology is whether or not Socrates is guilty. This means the first and foremost task of the reader is identical with the task of the jurors who sit as judge in Socrates’s trial. Accordingly, the following questions are primary:
1.) What are the charges against Socrates? (This involves recognizing what Socrates refers to as the official charges versus what he claims are the true charges.)
2.) Based upon your answer to the previous question, would you have allowed Socrates to educate your son? (You may find it helpful in answering this question to reflect upon what Socrates concludes from his questioning of the politicians, the poets, and the craftsmen.)
3.) What does Socrates explicitly say he knows? That is, does he say he does not know anything, or does he say something much more subtle? If it’s the latter, how does that differ from the former?
4.). When Socrates gives his account of when he questioned Callias about the education of his two sons in virtue, he uses the interesting phrase “knowledge in such virtue, that of human being and citizen.” Could it be the case that the virtue of being human differs from the virtue of being a specific citizen? What might be the consequences if the answer is yes, and how might that determine your answer to the second question above?