The Death Of Socrates

The Trial and Death of Socrates includes the four Platonic dialogues Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo.

Socrates's death in 399 BCE has figured largely in our world, shaping how we think about heroism and celebrity, religion and family life, state control and individual freedom--many of the key coordinates of Western culture. Wilson analyzes the enormous and enduring power the trial and death of Socrates has exerted over the Western imagination.

"The European philosophical tradition. . .consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." -- Alfred North Whitehead The dialogues of Plato stand alongside the Bible and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey as foundational texts of Western civilization. The works of Plato collected under the title The Trial and Death of Socrates have been particularly influential. This is because they provide both an excellent point of entry into Plato's vast philosophy and a vivid portrait of Plato's mentor, Socrates - one of the most uncompromising intellectuals in the pantheon of human history. It is predominantly through Plato's account in these works of the words and actions of Socrates during his trial and execution for impiety that the latter's nobility and profound integrity have become known to succeeding generations.

"'Tell us, Delphic Oracle, who is the wisest man in all of Greece?' So begins The Death of Socrates. No mortal man is wiser than Socrates, who, on his daily walks through Athens, talks to all the people he meets. When the person he talks to takes himself to be very wise, Socrates asks so many questions that the person ends up admitting he knows nothing. When he runs into people who know little, Socrates sets them on the way to wisdom. But not everyone shares Socrates's love for the truth. When the people of Athens put him on trial for his ceaseless questioning, how will he find the courage to continue to speak the truth?" from publisher's website.

A revisionist account of the most famous trial and execution in Western civilization — one with great resonance for modern society In the spring of 399 BCE, the elderly philosopher Socrates stood trial in his native Athens. The court was packed, and after being found guilty by his peers, Socrates died by drinking a cup of poison hemlock, his execution a defining moment in ancient civilization. Yet time has transmuted the facts into a fable. Aware of these myths, Robin Waterfield has examined the actual Greek sources, presenting a new Socrates, not an atheist or guru of a weird sect, but a deeply moral thinker, whose convictions stood in stark relief to those of his former disciple, Alcibiades, the hawkish and self-serving military leader. Refusing to surrender his beliefs even in the face of death, Socrates, as Waterfield reveals, was determined to save a morally decayed country that was tearing itself apart. Why Socrates Died is then not only a powerful revisionist book, but a work whose insights translate clearly from ancient Athens to the present day.

Among the most important and influential philosophical works in Western thought: the dialogues entitled Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo. Translations by distinguished classical scholar Benjamin Jowett.

Shows that the dialogue in Plato's Phaedo is primarily devoted to presenting Socrates' final defense of the philosophical life against the theoretical and political challenge of religion.

This third edition of 'The Trial and Death of Socrates' presents G. M. A. Grube's distinguished translations, as revised by John Cooper for 'Plato, Complete Works'. A number of new or expanded footnotes are also included along with a Select Bibliography. John M. Cooper is Stuart Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University.