Study Questions on Apology (trans. Grube)
in Plato, Five Dialogues (Hackett, 2002), pp. 21-44
1. What slanders have followed Socrates around for many years? (18b, 19b)*
2. How does S. refute the claim that he is like the philosophers who study natural phenomena? (19c-d)
3. How does S. refute the claim that he is like the teachers (Sophists) who charge money? (19d-20c)
4. What did the oracle say about Socrates? (21a)
5. What did this motivate Socrates to do? (21c-22d, 23b)
6. How did Socrates eventually come to understand the meaning of the oracle? (22e)
7. What does Socrates do? Does he think he is following the will of the gods? (23b, c, 28e, 29d, 30a, 33c) Does Socrates sound like an atheist? (Besides the passages just listed, see also 26b-27e, 35c.)
8. Should a good person care about his wealth or his body or the condition of his soul, according to Socrates? (29d-30a)
9. To what animal does Socrates compare the citizens ("the city")? To what animal does he compare himself? (30e)
10. How does philosophical inquiry about human goodness affect the soul, in his view? (36c)
11. Is every kind of human life worth living, according to Socrates? Explain. (38a)
* These "Stepanus numbers," which are given in the margin of the text, are keyed to the standard edition of the Greek text on which this translation is based. They allow us to pinpoint an idea or a sentence to within one fifth of a page. They also allow us to compare different translations of the same passage. Imagine the Stepanus number itself to be followed by an "a". "19a" refers to the part of Stepanus page 19 that begins with the line on which "19" occurs and ends with the line just before the occurrence of first marginal "b" encountered. "19b" refers to the part of Stepanus page 19 that begins with the line on which this "b" occurs and ends with the line just prior to the first marginal "c" encountered.