In the Library
The Apology
Plato, 399 BCE
- Form
- Form Philosophy
- Difficulty
- Difficulty Accessible
- Reading time
- Reading time 50 minutes
- Translated by
- Translated by Benjamin Jowett (1871)
- Original
- Original grc
- Chapters
- Chapters 1
- Length
- Length 11k words
£1.99
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The unexamined life is not worth living.
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About the book
Invited to name his own punishment after the verdict, Socrates proposes that the city should reward him instead, with free meals at public expense, the honor reserved for Olympic champions. This is a man on trial for his life, and he refuses to pretend he fears losing it. Plato's The Apology records the defense Socrates gave before five hundred Athenian jurors on charges of impiety and corrupting the young; "apologia" means defense, not contrition, and he apologizes for nothing. He calls himself a gadfly the god has fastened to the sluggish flank of Athens, stinging the great drowsy creature awake, and claims he is wise only in knowing how little he knows. Offered silence or exile, he answers that the unexamined life is not worth living, and takes the hemlock rather than become any other kind of man. Read it and you see why no argument since has had to prove itself at quite this price.