"Citizen Socrates"

5th Annual Platsis Symposium on the Greek Legacy

"Citizen Socrates"

Friday, September 29, 2006
2:00pm - Theatrical Performance of Plato's "The Apology of Socrates" by Emmy Award Winner Yannis Simonides
4:00pm - Lectures by Gerasimos Santas, University of California, Irvine
and Paul Woodruff, University of Texas, Austin
6:00pm - Reception
Rackham Amphitheatre, 4th floor
915 E. Washington
Ann Arbor, MI
More information

Socrates the philosopher died in 399 B.C.E. at the age of 70, after being tried and condemned by the city of Athens on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. Despite this rough treatment at the hands of his native city, Socrates chose to stay in prison and await his execution. As a citizen, Socrates presents the world with a puzzle; in him we see a man whose commitment to his city, choosing to die by its laws, however unjust his condemnation, is matched only by his disdain for convention and outrage at the moral hubris that accompanies civic actions when fueled by the fear, prejudice, and greed to which all human beings are susceptible.

Socrates spent his life combating these tendencies among his fellow citizens, confronting powerful members of the Athenian citizen body at a time when the democracy flourished and when Athenian might weighed heavily against her neighboring cities.

The fifth annual Platsis Symposium will celebrate Socratic citizenship, focusing on the philosopher's role in providing his fellow citizens with occasions for moral reflection accompanied by self-restraint. Whatever our own notions of citizenship may be, looking once more at the Socratic model, which highlights the role of moral conscience and individual responsibility in
the work of the citizen, will perhaps occasion a recommitment for all of us to become more than ordinary citizens.
~Sara Ahbel-Rappe

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