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	The proper thing for Socrates to do in his opinion is to defend himself from his accusers chronologically This is because there have been many of them for many years despite the fact that none of them have ever said a word of truth The most amazing accusers however are those that made the untrue accusations of him in front of and to ren They accused him of
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	saying that he had theories about the earth and heavens and did not believe in the gods Furthermore they continued to say that he can make the weaker argument defeat the stronger Line c Socrates considered these people to be his most dangerous accusers because they influenced ren from a very early age when they are most impressionable and because there was nobody there to defend him He deems it impossible to know or name all of his accusers and thus he says that it is very difficult to deal with them or crosamine them all Because of this one simply has to conduct ones defense and argue ones case against an invisible opponent Line dSocrates believes that his critics fall into two classes those who directly accused him and those mentioned previously the latter whom he will defend himself against first After this introduction Socrates begins his defense aiming to convince the jury that the impressions that they have of him are false However he realizes that this task is difficult and will thus go back to the beginning and examine the factors that have made people so critical of him and have caused them to attack his character and eventuallyMeletus to draw up this indictment The primary accusations were that he was a physical philosopher a sophist and a professional teacher He was depicted in Aristophanes play as someone who was lifted around proclaiming that he is walking on air and uttering a great deal of other nonsense about things of which I know nothing whatsoever Line c He now asks the members of the jury to stand witness to his statement that these claims are false and tell each other whether they have ever heard him speak of such things By proving that there is little truth in this statement he believes that they will realize that there is little truth in the others as well Socrates claims that just as there is no truth in these charges there is also no truth that he tried to educate people for a fee However he claims that it is truly something to be proud of if a man does have this ability such as Gorgias of Liontini Prodicus of Ceos and Hippias of Elis He says that each of these people are capable of convincing anyone that they are better off paying for their company than spending time with their friends In meeting Callias Hipponicuss son who pays more in sophists fees than anybody else Socrates asked him who the best teacher in perfecting societal virtues is and who he would hire to teach his sons these things if there is such a person Callias answered him that of course there is such a person and that Evenus of Paros was the best at doing this and charged Drachmae Socrates felt that Evenus should be congratulated if he truly was a master at these things and that it was surprising that he should charge such a moderate fee Now he continues to say that he would certainly be a proud gentleman if he had his understandings but he does not To answer the unasked question of how such a reputation befell him if he had engaged only in regular activities Socrates says he will give whole truth He gained this reputation from human wisdom Topic Tracking Wisdom Furthermore he believes that the geniuses he just mentioned have a wisdom that is more than human as he does not know how to account for it and he knows he does not have it Thus anyone who says he does must be lying Topic Tracking Wisdom Although this may sound extravagant he calls as his witness Delphi When Chaerophon his friend from hood and an excellent democrat visited Delphi and asked the god if there was anyone wiser than Socrates The Delphi answered that there was not Topic Tracking Wisdom When Socrates heard this claim he asked himself what hidden meaning the god had because he was only too aware that he is not wise let alone the wisest man in the world However as gods cannot lie he set out to find out what the god meant Topic Tracking Wisdom The Apology The Defense Section He interviewed a man with a high reputation for wisdom in order to disprove the oracle However when he examined this person and conversed with him he realized that people only thought this person was wise and the person also thought he was wise when in fact Socrates realized that he was not When Socrates tried to show him that he was overestimating his wisdom he and other people present resented his efforts Topic Tracking Resentment As he left he realized that he was wiser than this man because even though neither of them had any knowledge to boast of the man thinks that he does whereas Socrates is aware that he doesnt Thus Socrates is wiser than the man because he does not think that he know things that he does not know Socrates then interviewed a man of an even greater reputation for wisdom and came to the same conclusion again causing the man and everybody present to resent him He did this again and again Although Socrates knew that he was becoming unpopular the gods business and oracles words were more important and he wanted to interview with everyone who was known to have knowledge As a result he realized that the people with greater reputations were less wise than those with inferior reputations After he interviewed all the wise politicians he turned to the poets He chose some of their best works and asked them about the meanings in them hoping to expand his knowledge He soon came to the conclusion that any person could explain their poems as well as they could and that it was not wisdom that enabled them to write their poetry but instinct and inspiration Furthermore the very fact that they were poets made them think that they had a perfect understanding of all other subjects of which they were totally ignorant Line c Lastly he turned to the sed craftsmen Since he knew nothing about this area he knew he would find them all full of knowledge He was happy about this as they understood things that he didnt and therefore could be considered wiser than he was However they had the same fault of the poets on the strength of their technical proficiency they claimed a perfect understanding of every other subject Line d He found this fault to be greater than their wisdom As a result he asked himself whether he would rather have their wisdom and ignorance or have neither His answer was that he preferred to be the way he was Topic Tracking Wisdom His examinations have caused many people to dislike him and be hostile towards him in a persistent and malicious way making wrong suggestions about him Topic Tracking Resentment This is because whenever I succeed in disproving another persons claim to wisdom in a given subject the bystanders assumed that he know everything about that subject myself Line a But Socrates isnt arrogant about his own knowledge or wisdom he believes that human wisdom has little or no value Topic Tracking Wisdom As he realizes this it seems apparent that when the oracle named him as the wisest person they did not name him as Socrates but instead named him as an example of a person who realizes that human wisdom is worthless That is why he believes that it is his divine duty to teach all who think that they are wise but are not that they are not Topic Tracking Wisdom The Apology The Defense Section This duty has kept him too busy to do much elseso he ended up in poverty Furthermore he claims that wealthy young men with much leisure time on their hands follow him around as they enjoy hearing people crossquestioned Taking him as their model they go out and try to question people themselves As their victims become annoyed they blame Socrates for filling these youths heads with wrong ideas However if they ask them what he does they will not know what to say and therefore they fall back on the charges given to any sophist that he inquires about the heavens and below the earth disbelieves in gods and makes the weaker argument stronger