Part 6 of Plato’s Apology runs from margin number 38c to 42a, and is about 1,700 words long.
In it, Socrates does five things.
First, he addresses the jurors who voted to condemn him to death, and gives his memorable
comparison of the two runners, wickedness and death.
Second, he predicts that more philosophers will follow after him.
Third, he addresses the jurors who voted to acquit him, suggesting that perhaps the trial’s
outcome is for the best.
Fourth, he reflects on whether death is good or evil, and whether it is wise to fear or
not fear death.
Lastly, he tells his supporters on the jury that no harm can come to a good man, and he
asks them to question and cross-examine his sons, when they are grown, and to rebuke them
if they seem to care more for worldly goods than for virtue and justice.
In the next part of the video I will give you the text of Part 6, with my notes on the screen.
At the end of the video, I will offer some discussion questions.
Here we go.
Not much time will be gained, O Athenians, in return for the evil name which you will
get from the detractors of the city, who will say that you killed Socrates, a wise man;
for they will call me wise even although I am not wise when they want to reproach you.
If you had waited a little while, your desire would have been fulfilled in the course of nature.
For I am far advanced in years, as you may perceive, and not far from death.
I am speaking now only to those of you who have condemned me to death.
And I have another thing to say to them: You think that I was convicted through deficiency
of words - I mean, that if I had thought fit to leave nothing undone, nothing unsaid, I
might have gained an acquittal.
Not so; the deficiency which led to my conviction was not of words - certainly not.
But I had not the boldness or impudence or inclination to address you as you would have
liked me to address you, weeping and wailing and lamenting, and saying and doing many things
which you have been accustomed to hear from others, and which, as I say, are unworthy of me.
But I thought that I ought not to do anything common or mean in the hour of danger: nor
do I now repent of the manner of my defence, and I would rather die having spoken after
my manner, than speak in your manner and live.
For neither in war nor yet at law ought any man to use every way of escaping death.
For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall
on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other
ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything.
The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for
that runs faster than death.
I am old and move slowly, and the slower runner has overtaken me, and my accusers are keen
and quick, and the faster runner, who is unrighteousness, has overtaken them.
And now I depart hence condemned by you to suffer the penalty of death, and they, too,
go their ways condemned by the truth to suffer the penalty of villainy and wrong; and I must
abide by my award - let them abide by theirs.
I suppose that these things may be regarded as fated, - and I think that they are well.
And now, O men who have condemned me, I would fain prophesy to you; for I am about to die,
and that is the hour in which men are gifted with prophetic power.
And I prophesy to you who are my murderers, that immediately after my death punishment
far heavier than you have inflicted on me will surely await you.
Me you have killed because you wanted to escape the accuser, and not to give an account of
your lives.
But that will not be as you suppose: far otherwise.
For I say that there will be more accusers of you than there are now; accusers whom hitherto
I have restrained: and as they are younger they will be more severe with you, and you
will be more offended at them.
For if you think that by killing me you can avoid the accuser censuring your lives, you
are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable; the
easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.
This is the prophecy which I utter before my departure, to the judges who have condemned me.
Friends, who would have acquitted me, I would like also to talk with you about this thing
which has happened, while the magistrates are busy, and before I go to the place at
which I must die.
Stay then awhile, for we may as well talk with one another while there is time.
You are my friends, and I should like to show you the meaning of this event which has happened to me.
O my judges - for you I may truly call judges - I should like to tell you of a wonderful circumstance.
Hitherto the familiar oracle within me has constantly been in the habit of opposing me
even about trifles, if I was going to make a slip or error about anything; and now as
you see there has come upon me that which may be thought, and is generally believed
to be, the last and worst evil.
But the oracle made no sign of opposition, either as I was leaving my house and going
out in the morning, or when I was going up into this court, or while I was speaking,
at anything which I was going to say; and yet I have often been stopped in the middle
of a speech; but now in nothing I either said or did touching this matter has the oracle
opposed me.
What do I take to be the explanation of this? I will tell you.
I regard this as a proof that what has happened to me is a good, and that those of us who
think that death is an evil are in error.
This is a great proof to me of what I am saying, for the customary sign would surely have opposed
me had I been going to evil and not to good.
Let us reflect in another way, and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that
death is a good, for one of two things: - either death is a state of nothingness and utter
unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this
world to another.
Now if you suppose that there is no consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed
even by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain.
For if a person were to select the night in which his sleep was undisturbed even by dreams,
and were to compare with this the other days and nights of his life, and then were to tell
us how many days and nights he had passed in the course of his life better and more
pleasantly than this one, I think that any man, I will not say a private man, but even
a great king, will not find many such days or nights, when compared with the others.
Now if death is like this, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night.
But if death is the journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead are, what
good, O my friends and judges, can be greater than this?
If indeed when the pilgrim arrives in the world below, he is delivered from the professors
of justice in this world, and finds the true judges who are said to give judgment there,
Minos and Rhadamanthus and Aeacus and Triptolemus, and other sons of God who were righteous in
their own life, that pilgrimage will be worth making.
What would not a man give if he might converse with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer?
Nay, if this be true, let me die again and again.
I, too, shall have a wonderful interest in a place where I can converse with Palamedes,
and Ajax the son of Telamon, and other heroes of old, who have suffered death through an
unjust judgment; and there will be no small pleasure, as I think, in comparing my own
sufferings with theirs.
Above all, I shall be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge; as in
this world, so also in that; I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends to be wise,
and is not.
What would not a man give, O judges, to be able to examine the leader of the great Trojan
expedition; or Odysseus or Sisyphus, or numberless others, men and women too!
What infinite delight would there be in conversing with them and asking them questions!
For in that world they do not put a man to death for this; certainly not.
For besides being happier in that world than in this, they will be immortal, if what is
said is true.
Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth - that no
evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
He and his are not neglected by the gods; nor has my own approaching end happened by
mere chance.
But I see clearly that to die and be released was better for me; and therefore the oracle
gave no sign.
For which reason also, I am not angry with my accusers, or my condemners; they have done
me no harm, although neither of them meant to do me any good; and for this I may gently
blame them.
Still I have a favor to ask of them.
When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, O my friends, to punish them; and I would
have you trouble them, as I have troubled you, if they seem to care about riches, or
anything, more than about virtue; or if they pretend to be something when they are really
nothing, - then reprove them, as I have reproved you, for not caring about that for which they
ought to care, and thinking that they are something when they are really nothing.
And if you do this, I and my sons will have received justice at your hands.
The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live.
Which is better God only knows.
Now, here are my discussion questions for Part 6 of Plato’s Apology.
First: Fear of death is a universal human emotion, but Socrates argues that this is
irrational and foolish; a wise man ought not to fear death.
Has he made a good case for facing death with calm acceptance?
Second: What do you think Socrates means by “no evil can happen to a good man, either
in life or after death”?
Does having virtue guarantee that we live a good life?
Those are my discussion questions for Part 6 of Plato’s Apology.
Thanks for watching today; goodbye.