Socrates Against Athens: Philosophy on Trial

"...[Colaiaco] does a commendable job throughout of providing both historical and cultural context for the lay reader attempting to read the Apology and the Crito." -- Velvet Yates, University of California, Irvine
"Socrates Against Athens is a welcome addition to the literature on Socrates' trial and imprisonment. Written in a clear, engaging style, this study can be read profitably by anyone who is interested in the conflict between some of Athens' citizens and her most famous philosopher." -- Thomas C. Brickhouse, John Franklin East Professor of the Humanities, Lynchburg College

James A. Colaiaco is a Master Teacher in the General Studies Program of the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies. He is the author of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Apostle of Militant Nonviolence (1993) and James Fitzjames Stephen and the Crisis of Victorian Thought (1983).

; 1. Introduction: A Tragic Confrontation; 2. Setting the Stage for the Trial; Preliminaries; Historicity of the Apology; 3. Socrates and Rhetoric; Athens-City of Speech; Socrates' Opening Remarks: Dismantling Forensic Rhetoric; 4. Socrates Confronts His Old Accusers; Socrates and Aristophanes' Clouds; Socrates Denies He is a Teacher of Natural Science; Socrates Denies He is a Sophist; 5. Socrates' Radical Philosophic Mission; The Delphic Oracle; Socrates Examines the Politicians, Poets, and Craftsmen; The Mask of Ignorance; Solving the Riddle of the Oracle; 6. The Athenian Polis Ideal; The Funeral Oration of Pericles: Apotheosis of the Polis; Homeric Shame Culture; Democracy Appropriates Homer; The Polis and the Individual; 7. Socrates Confronts His Present Accusers: The Interrogation of Meletus; Corrupting the Young; The Polis as Teacher; Athenian Polis Religion; Socrates and Impiety; 8. Socrates Brings the Philosophic Mission into the Court; Death Bears No Sting; Caring for One's Soul; Stepping Up the Offense; The Gadfly; 9. The Politics of an Unpolitical Man; A Private Rather than a Public Station; Socrates' Divine Voice; Defender of Justice; 10. The Trial Concludes: Socrates Condemned; The Corruption Charge Revisited; Rejecting an Appeal for Sympathy; Proposing a Counterpenalty; Truth Fails to Persuade; Parting Words to Enemies; Parting Words to Friends; 11. Socrates and Civil Disobedience: The Crito; Socrates and Antigone; Socrates Dismisses the Shame Culture; Justice and the Soul; Socrates Argues for the Laws; The Skillful Ironist; Fulfilling the Will of a Benevolent God; 12. Conclusion: A Conflict Unresolved; Notes; Selected Bibliography; Index

As an essential companion to Plato's Apology and Crito, Socrates Against Athens provides valuable historical and cultural context to our understanding of the trial.