Audiobook · read by volunteers
Apology of Socrates (version 3)
Plato
Read by Fr. Richard Zeile of Detroit · 4 chapters · 1 h 15
About the book
In 399 BC, a seventy-year-old philosopher stood before a jury of his fellow Athenians, charged with corrupting the young and failing to honour the city’s gods. What he said in his own defence has been read ever since. Plato’s Apology gives us Socrates in his full character: ironic, courageous, unwilling to flatter and unwilling to stop asking questions. He explains how his life’s mission began, why he thinks the examined life is the only one worth living, and what he thinks of those who condemn him. This is the Benjamin Jowett translation, in a recording of four parts. It is brief, but its themes of conscience, duty and the courage of one’s convictions are inexhaustible. About an hour and a quarter of listening.
Introduction
Plato (about 428 to 347 BC) was one of the founders of Western philosophy, and the Apology is his account of the speech made by his teacher Socrates at his trial in Athens. Socrates had been accused of corrupting the youth and of impiety, and the jury found him guilty. Plato, who is thought to have been present, wrote the work not as a transcript but as a faithful portrait of the man and his principles.
The text is not an apology in the modern sense of saying sorry. The Greek word means a defence, and Socrates uses the occasion to explain how he has lived and why. He tells of the oracle at Delphi, of his habit of questioning people who claimed to be wise, and of his belief that doing right matters more than staying alive. In the course of the speech he gives one of the best-known statements of philosophical purpose: that the unexamined life is not worth living.
The English version here is the translation by Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893), a classical scholar of the nineteenth century whose renderings of Plato were influential for generations.
This is the third LibriVox version of the work. It is divided into four files and lasts about an hour and a quarter. It was read by a LibriVox volunteer. It is a short and powerful text, and an excellent first step into philosophy.
Public domain
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text