Apology of Socrates (Plato)

Plato’s dramatization of the speech Socrates gave in his own defence at his trial in Athens in 399 BCE, answering the charges of impiety and corrupting the young. Socrates declines to plead for his life on the jury’s terms, insists that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” and reframes the trial as a contest between the philosophical life and the city’s authority over what may be questioned. It is the founding text of the quarrel between the philosopher and the political community.

The list prints the entry as “Plato/Aristophanes” and links it to Four Texts on Socrates — the teaching volume that pairs Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology and Crito with Aristophanes’ Clouds, translated by Thomas G. West and Grace Starry West. Aristophanes is the author of the companion play in that edition, not a translator or editor of the Apology.

Composed in the decade after the trial; there is no meaningful single publication date.

Why it’s on the list: The curriculum opens with the classical Greeks, and this sub-section is where McCord starts the whole list — his framing is that the competing Greek city-states were an early case of competing jurisdictions, and that studying them exposes you to genuinely different ways of thinking about governance. The Apology is the first entry.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Classical Greek Political Philosophy. Shared on X on March 9, 2026 and saved to Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note. The full 211-entry transcription, with the four parts and sixteen sub-sections, is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this card came from.
• Plato — the author.
• Socrates — the defendant, and the subject of the dialogue.
• Apology of Socrates — the existing concept page for the dialogue in this wiki.