Socrates, condemned to death by Athens, speaks in his own defense. Plato records what he said, or what he might have said, or what he should have said. The speech is a performance of philosophical integrity: Socrates refuses to beg for his life, refuses to stop questioning, chooses death over the abandonment of his mission. The unexamined life is not worth living: the phrase has become almost too familiar to hear. But in context, at this moment, spoken by a man about to drink hemlock, it regains its full weight.