And what is most significant revealed the mechanism of social relations of power. So, there were two kinds of “words” competing in the agōn of Athens´ marketplace by that time: the word of the “sophists” and that of “philosophy,” with actual implications on the conception of reality, and its possibility to know it and name it, that had, on the other hand, important consequences on all the structure of the new society that was arising, since the attraction of the “word” as taught by the Sophists was showing to be absolutely useful, that is pragmatic, for the basic everyday life, from what you were trying to sell or buy in the market or what you were trying to achieve, but also in political affairs, or at court. Knowing how to speak was becoming the perfect tool to succeed in all domains of society where you were expected to use the “word” to persuade vast audiences and not to say what is Real and True as the philosophers were seeking. The Sophists, then, were teaching the youths mainly how to speak. And certainly, this could be used as a means of power and success. Sophists thought words had nothing to do with the Real or with what it is, but “act” upon the real.

The answer leads us to the newcomers in the agorā and their use of logos and ideals, that is the rise of the Sophists who taught the youths new tools and had a different perspective of what education was. Īnd why is this so important at the time of the enlightened and brilliant Athens where Socrates and Plato lived in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE? Athens: Agora This is the central point here (and in much of Plato´s philosophy), for if you are searching for what it IS, the “status” of the relation between what it is or what is Real and the word that names it is key. It is dealing, therefore, with the problem of rhetoric, that is, with the question of “words …” So, the dialogue, from the beginning and from its title, purports to give us the “speeches” Socrates himself gave in his own defense at his trial. To start with, it is interesting to note that this dialogue does not take a proper noun (the name of one of the characters in the dialogue concerned) as a title but chooses a common noun, one that refers to the act of defense.īecause in Greek Ἀπολογία = “apology” does not mean as in current English, “I am sorry,” but refers to a “verbal” defense.

In it, Socrates makes his own defense of the accusations he had received for corrupting the youths and introducing new gods in the city of Athens. The decision to return to the cave to enlighten the rest of the prisoners is viewed by Plato as the work of philosophers in enlightening the rest of the population to know the truth.The Apology is one of the so-called Early Dialogues of Plato.

Apology by plato