Socrates in the Apology: virtue as the key to happiness vs. other goods such as wealth and honor
Random number: 34
Socrates was known to many as an intellectual gadfly, talking nonsense and questioning others of their own beliefs. This public portrayal was aided and abbetted by the play 'The Clouds' written by Aristophanes, wherein Socrates is portrayed as an idle person who seems detached from the world. Many people were angered by the way Socrates conducted himself, constantly undermining other's ideas and opinions, and Socrates was charged by the court.
The Apology (written by Plato) professes to be a record of the speech that Socrates delivered in his own defense at the trial. Socrates was being trialled for 'impeity and corruption', specifically, he had charges of 'corrupting the young' and 'not believing in the gods in whom the city believes'.
Socrates divides his critics into two separate sets, the earlier and the more recent. Socrates claims that his earlier critics are made of people who have been angered by the manner with which Socrates has systematically questioned the wisdom and beliefs of the public; politicians, poets and craftsman. Socrates explains that he only did this to fulfil an order from a Goddess. One day, the Goddess had told a friend of Socrates' that Socrates was the wisest man. Socrates refused to believe that this was the case, as he was quite sure that he knew nothing at all; so set about to find someone wiser than he, to figure out whether the Goddess spoke true. Everyone he questioned however, seemed to profess to know things when they didn't, whilst Socrates maintained that he knew nothing whatsoever, which made him the smarter man. These angry people accused Socrates of corrupting the young, but the young who chose to follow Socrates followed him out of their own free will, and Socrates claims that he never taught them anything.
Socrates defends himself from the modern accusers (e.g. Meletus) by questioning Meletus, and showing that he holds contradictory ideas. For example, Meletus accuses Socrates of corrupting the young. But Socrates assumes the living among good citizens is preferable to living among wicked citizens, so either Socrates unwillingly corrupted the young, or he did not corrupt them at all; in either case he should not be brought to court, and Meletus is lying.
Secondly, Meletus accuses Socrates of not believing in any Gods whatsoever. Meletus also maintains, however, that Socrates teaches spiritual things. Socrates argues that if he teaches spiritual things, he must believe in spiritual things, which means he must believe in spirits, and spirits are only of the form of children of Gods and Gods themselves, so Socrates definitely believes in Gods.
IMPORTANT
It is the best possible state of your soul, i.e. the excellence of your soul
It is virtue, i.e. a stable disposition to behave well
As it is virtue, it has moral value
Virtue enables you to use well all good things (health, wealth, and so on)
Virtue is the only thing which is intrinsically good and makes other things (which are merely conditionally good) good. This is why it makes you happy
Virtue can only be obtained through an examined life
Since virtue is the only good, and it can be obtained only through an examined life, an unexamined life is not worth living
IMPORTANT
Socrates’ novelty:
The soul is a bearer of moral value, i.e. it can be a morally good soul (when it is virtuous) or a morally bad soul (when it is vicious)
Having virtue and thus a good soul is necessary for happiness (though may not be sufficient)
It is better to suffer vicious things than to do them, for vicious things make your soul vicious and you unhappy
Socrates continues to say that death does not bother him so much as living a good life; and because he has been tasked by the Gods to question other's wisdom he will continue to do so even at the risk of his own life. Rather, he considers that he is a gift from God, and rather than trying to rescue his own life he is trying to rescue his accusers, for they are attempting to kill a gift from God.
Socrates gives various reasons why he is a just and innocent man: A few years ago he was the only one to vote against a command that was later recognized as illegal, he refused the order of the Thirty Tyrants to bring in an innocent man at the risk of his own life, he lives in poverty, none of the young men he is supposed to have 'corrupted' have come up to speak against him.
Socrates is charged as guilty. Now discussing whether or not Socrates should be put to death; Socrates suggests that instead he should be offered free meals at the Prytaneum, for he has done no wrong, in fact he has done much right. Socrates, however, is sentenced to death. Socrates ends by stating that death cannot be viewed as something evil, as it is either a senseless dreamless sleep (which is to say something much better than most nights), or a relocation of the soul to another place, and who wouldn't want to talk with the dead?