Apology

Charged with impiety and corrupting the youth, Socrates refuses to plead for mercy. Instead he uses his defense to interrogate his accusers, mock the charges, and lay out the principle he is willing to die for: that the unexamined life is not worth living. Plato, who was present at the trial, gives us its only sustained account. The Apology is the first of the four dialogues recounting Socrates' final days — followed by Crito, Phaedo, and (in tradition) Euthyphro — and the bedrock text of Western philosophy.