The Apology, a record of Socrates’ trial and testimony according to Plato, begins with the introduction of Socrates to the court in what is the first time he has ever been accused in his seventy years of existence. There are two formal charges that have been brought against Socrates by Meletus, a citizen of Athens and three lesser charges that Socrates feels are the root of people’s hatred for him and the true reason as to why he is being accused. His testimony is not short by any means and is very thorough in terms of defending his cause.
He begins by defending himself against the lesser charges because these are the rumors that have been spreading and these are the accusations that the people are more familiar with (23). The first slander he addresses states that he is guilty of wrongdoing in that he busies himself studying things in the sky and below the earth (24). His response to this is that he claims he has no knowledge of such things and has never been heard talking about them.
The second accusation is that he makes the worse into the stronger argument (24). This perhaps is the core of Socrates’ habits of which so many people despise him. He speaks in such a way that he rarely allows himself to be proven wrong under any circumstance. He does not directly tell people they are wrong, rather, he asks questions that force people to contradict their earlier statements, pointing out the inconsistencies in their beliefs. This is known as a negative method or one of refutation. To justify this, Socrates recounts a story of a former friend of his, Chaerephon, who went to Delphi and asked the oracle if any man was smarter than Socrates and the oracle replied no (26). Socrates admits that he did not u ...