#70: Socrates in the Apology | C.D.C. Reeve

Was Socrates a sincere philosopher condemned for his honesty — or a master ironist who talked his way into a death sentence? In this episode of The Prometheans, host Ali Zaka sits down with C.D.C. Reeve, Delta Kappa Epsilon Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of the landmark study Socrates in the Apology: An Essay on Plato's Apology of Socrates (Hackett, 1989), to reconstruct one of the most consequential courtroom speeches in Western history.

Reeve — also the translator behind some of the most widely read English editions of Plato's Apology, Euthyphro, and Crito — makes the case that Socrates meant exactly what he said: that he possessed no expert "craft knowledge" of virtue, only a hard-won human wisdom built from a lifetime of relentless self-examination. We dig into why Reeve rejects the popular "ironic Socrates" reading, what his daimonion (his inner divine sign) actually tells us about the relationship between reason and revelation, and why the historical and legal context of 399 BC Athens matters for understanding why the jury convicted him.

Along the way, we open a wider, cross-traditional question that sits at the heart of The Prometheans: how do different philosophical and religious traditions understand the rationality of trusting an inner voice, a private prompting from the divine? Is the examined life a purely rational project, or does it require something more?

Topics covered:

— Who was the historical Socrates on trial?

— The "sincerity thesis": why Reeve rejects Socratic irony

— Human wisdom vs. divine/expert wisdom

— The daimonion debate: reason, revelation, and the "foundationalist" reading

— The legal and cultural background of the trial

— Why the examined life still matters today

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The Prometheans is an interfaith and cross-civilizational philosophy podcast/YouTube channel hosted by Ali Zaka, exploring philosophy of religion, comparative theology, and the history of ideas.

Guest: C.D.C. Reeve, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Book referenced: Socrates in the Apology: An Essay on Plato's Apology of Socrates (Hackett Publishing, 1989)