Self-Images of Socrates. Respect of Tradition and Philosophical Innovation in Plato’s Apology

This chapter arises from the need to answer the following working questions: 1. Are the self-images provided by Socrates in Plato’s Apology really at odds with each other? If not, what is the theoretical framework in the light of which the two clusters of images (i.e., the apparently “self-aggrandizing” and the “self-demeaning” ones) appear as different expressions of a consistent line of self-representation? 2. Why should Socrates present before his addressees (i.e., a number of jurors and some Athenian fellow-citizens who attended the trial merely as spectators) images of himself that risk to appear inconsistent with each other? Further, why should he perform an act of self-sabotage and supply representations of himself which, instead of dismantling negative prejudices against him, inevitably end up fuelling them? Finally, why should Plato give his Socrates the licence to offer a negative view of himself? To provide an answer to the questions at stake, I shall refer to the goals of Plato as a philosophical writer. By assuming that, throughout his written dialogues, Plato seeks to enable his readers to engage in a true dialogical experience with his texts,6 I will suggest that the author invites the readers of his Apology virtually to join the trial and express in full autonomy a rationally informed verdict. As I will propose, far from willingly offering an inconsistent rendition of Socrates’s character and values, Plato’s use of contrasting self-images of Socrates in the Apology is specifically designed to give his readers the opportunity to read specific claims as ambivalent, and to interpret them in such a way that these do not appear incompatible with other images offered in the text. If this hypothesis is plausible, what Socrates’s accusers and most members of the jury regard as inappropriate outbursts of boastfulness and shamelesness on his part might rather turn out to be expressions of the relevance of critical examination in the lives of human beings.