WHY WAS SOCRATES ON TRIAL?: SOME OPINIONS
I. It was politics:
A. K. Popper The Open Society and Its Enemies: “As soon as the restored democracy had re-established normal legal conditions, a case was brought against Socrates. Its meaning was clear enough; he was accused of having had his hand in the education of the most pernicious enemies of the State…The charge could not openly refer to these notorious cases. The prosecutors probably sought not so much to punish Socrates for the unfortunate political events of the past which, as they knew well, had happened against his intentions; their aim was, rather, to prevent him from continuing his teaching.”
B. R. Waterfield Why Socrates Died “Socrates only became a target once he was perceived as a threat to public order. His links to the tyranny of the Thirty (4 years before; final defeat 2 years before) changed his status from harmless eccentric to undesirable.”
II. It was religion:
A. Brickhouse and Smith Plato’s Socrates: The motivation for the trial was not political, but religious. It is easier to explain his lack of response to political issues this way.
B. E. Wilson The Death of Socrates: Many others questioned or made fun of the gods, but his version may have been more threatening because he was teaching a rational method . Also, his claim to a personal daimon, rather than sharing in the civic rituals. “Socrates died for truth, perhaps. But he also died in obedience to his own personal diety…I am suspicious…”
III. It was broadly cultural:
A. E. Wilson The Death of Socrates.“Socrates was imagined to be at the root of all the social and intellectual changes of the latter decades of the century.”(which saw defeat, loss of empire, and tyranny)
B. R. Waterfield Why Socrates Died “Socrates was taken to court as a figurehead…he was punished for the intergenerational conflict…for being a morally subversive teacher...for being a critic of democracy…Socrates was put to death because the Athenians wanted to purge themselves of an undesirable trend, not just of an undesirable individual.”