Plato's Apology

Does anybody understand Socrates' defense of the charge that he is a corrupter of youth? I think I'm missing somthing; it hardly seems like a watertight argument to me.

He is charged with being the corruptor of youth because he is teaching what many other greeks, specifically Meletus who brought many of the charges against Socrates based on the fact that Socrates was deemed wiser by the Oracle of Delphi, considered to be wrong. They thought he was wrong b/c he "made the worse appear the better."

For example, in today's world, looking at the World Trade Center....it was bad...to Americans. I'm not saying it isn't bad but, for Socrates, you have to look at both sides of the situation before you can say who is wrong. Killing americans is wrong to americans but not to the middle easterns' who ran the planes into the buildings. So, when americans say that it is wrong, Socrates is saying 'Who's to say who is right and wrong in this situation?' Americans have killed innocent people-Hiroshima-but we believe we were right at the time. If Socrates were to analyze this situation today he would ask the americans a series of questions about why flying planes into the trade center was bad and eventually have them contradict themeselves b/c in the end people would only have emotions and not reasons to justify what they believed was "right" and "wrong".

So, the greeks took this to mean that Socrates was making 'the bad guys' seem right and them wrong but in reality he just wanted people to be aware of the rights and wrongs of both sides.

I hope I didn't confuse you, I know what I am talking about most the time but sometimes have a hard time writing it down....feel free to ask more questions.

PLato's Apology is one of the finer dialogues by plato in that it demonstrates his fierce belief in the search for truth. The fact that he was willing to readily accept the death penalty shows his inner strength.