Socrates in the Apology: An Essay on Plato's Apology of Socrates

by C.D.C. Reeve

"Reeve's book is an excellent companion to Plato's Apology and a valuable discussion of many of the main issues that arise in the early dialogues. Reeve is an extremely careful reader of texts, and his familiarity with the legal and cultural background of Socrates' trial allows him to correct many common misunderstandings of that event. In addition, he integrates his reading of the apology with a sophisticated discussion of Socrates' philosophy. The writing is clear and succinct, and the research is informed by a thorough acquaintance with the secondary literature. Reeve's book will be accessible to any serious undergraduate, but it is also a work that will have to be taken into account by every scholar doing advanced research on Socrates." --Richard Kraut, Northwestern University

Genres: Philosophy

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

C. D. C. Reeve is a philosophy professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He works primarily in Ancient Greek philosophy, especially Plato and Aristotle. He is also interested in philosophy generally, and has published work in the philosophy of sex and love, and on film. He has also translated many Ancient Greek texts, mostly by Plato and Aristotle.

Reviews

[Franz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very deep analysis of Socrates's defense speech at the trial for his life. I am not privy to all the scholarly debates and interpretations of this seminal text of Western philosophy, but Reeves certainly seems to have a command of the Socratic dialogues of Plato as well as of the secondary literature on this topic. One point of disagreement he has with many of his colleagues is his denial that the claims and arguments of Socrates in this speech are meant to be ironic. Reeves argues that Socrates is sincere when he claims ignorance of what virtue is and how to teach it. Plenty of references to other dialogues buttress his argument. Extremely well written and a great example of scholarly writing and research.

[Luke Umar-Khitab · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always loved the Apology. Given that I'll probably have to teach it in the near future, I figured it would be a good idea to really clarify my thinking on this deceptively simple dialogue. This essay was immensely helpful in this process. It raised a lot of debates in Platonic scholarship I wasn't aware of, Reeve provided plenty of compelling interpretations (the ones in which he rejects Socrates as a fundamentally ironic character I strongly agreed with), and overall helped clarify my knowledge of both the Apology and Platonic philosophy writ large.
I liked this demarcation between expert craft knowledge of virtue and nonexpert human knowledge, as this seems to fit much better with how Socrates takes himself to be performing philosophy. He's not just wandering around being like I don't know a single thing about anything ever, but that he has no certain knowledge about that which is most important, namely virtue. Through living an examined life, he can possess a form of human virtue, in that he avoids committing to the blameworthy ignorance of thinking he knows that which he does not. This non-expert human knowledge is as much as human beings can strive for, which involves a constant, daily elenchus against our beliefs in the search for truth. It is through the repeated practice of the elenchus that we become as virtuous of human beings as we can.
I really enjoyed section 3.8 where he brought up questions about the elenchus itself as a mechanism of rational inquiry and how Socrates differs from the sophists he criticizes. These are important questions that still face us today and I need to think more about.
Overall, this was an impressive piece of scholarly work that made itself very accessible to those of us with nonexpert human knowledge of Plato and was very well-researched and argued. I will absolutely be consulting it again whenever I need to teach the Apology or analyze some beliefs about Plato. Think this is the second secondary source book on a philosopher that I've read from start to finish, so that's cool as well. We continue Plato summer and our grind to become an academic super weapon.

[Marcin Jezewski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good analysis of Plato’s Apology. Well wort reading for in-depth understanding of the founding text of political philosophy