The Apology of Socrates - Essay Example

Instead, Socrates informs the jury of Athens that the charges brought upon him were irrelevant and unjust. According to him, he had no malicious intent in instilling these thoughts of his and was only accused of having such due to the ignorance and envy of certain individuals. His point was that his ideas and actions should not be misconstrued as inappropriate but considered and respected.Analyzing deeper, one can see that the Apology was less concerned with forwarding any philosophical school of thought.

Rather, it provides a portrait of an ideal philosopher. Socrates wanted the people to know, whether directly or indirectly, that the philosopher is an individual who uses reason and whose ideas are not bounded by theological or social restrictions. The philosopher challenges current thinking by carefully dissecting prevailing thoughts through the scalpel of logic and reason. He challenges them to go beyond the pretensions and restrictions of current human knowledge. Socrates, in spite of his discernible wisdom, confesses his own ignorance and in doing so, makes us realize that we should not be afraid to confess our own ignorance.

Only by using so can we truly release our limited reasoning from the shackles of pretensions, obscurities, and false beliefs.