Analysis Of Socratess Four Accusations About Socrates

Four accusations about Socrates are that he commits injustice and is a busybody; he investigates things in the heavens and beneath the earth; he does not acknowledge the gods; he makes the weaker argument the stronger; he teaches this to others; he corrupts the young (Plato, Apology, 18c-19b, pg 47). While he is guilty of the first, second, fifth and sixth accusations, he is innocent of the third and the fourth. That Socrates is guilty by his own standards of being a busybody, or meddler, is proven by his way of discussing subjects by constantly asking questions, which can be quite meddlesome. â€Å"Doing one’s own work and not meddling with what is not one’s own† is Socrates’ own definition of justice (Plato, Republic, 433a, pg 139). His accusers, though probably used the more common definition of justice given by Simonides: â€Å"To speak the truth and repay what one has borrowed† (Plato, Republic, 331d, pg 77). By this very broad definition, everyone would be guilty of injustice at some point in their life if they ever told a lie, or failed to repay something that was borrowed. Socrates’s guilt of committing injustice can be proved by discussion about children in his ideal city. Socrates believed that in order to get the best children possible, people with a bronze soul shouldn’t be allowed to have children freely. Instead, the guardians would create a rigged lottery, in which, married people draw lots to decide who could have children. If they didn’t win the people