The Apology: The Unexamined Life

Plato's Apology presents Socrates' defense speech; the Greek word apologia means a defense, not an expression of regret. Socrates refuses to beg the jury or bring his weeping children before it, as defendants commonly did. Instead he explains his mission of questioning, cross-examines Meletus, and declares that if the jury freed him on condition that he stop philosophizing, he would refuse.

After his conviction, Athenian law let him propose a penalty; he first suggested free meals at public expense, an honor for benefactors, and later offered a fine guaranteed by friends. He then said that the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. Readers have long debated his tone: was he courageously principled, deliberately provocative, or both? Either way, the Apology became a model for conscientious defiance, quoted by later thinkers defending freedom of thought.