The Apology 28a - 32e Summary & Analysis | SparkNotes

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• saying that when performing an action, the only relevant question to concern oneself with is whether one is acting justly or not

• Considerations of life and death are selfish and unimportant next to considerations of justice

• Socrates should be even less willing to abandon his post as a seeker of truth than a good soldier would be to abandon his post in battle.

• Socrates' wisdom comes from acknowledging that he does not know what he does not know, and his acknowledgment that he does not know what awaits him in the afterlife leads him not to fear i

• he would be foolish to do what he knows is wrong for fear of an unknown quantity

• wealth and honor are trifling concerns next to the pursuit of truth and the perfecting of the sou

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• Putting an innocent man to death is far worse, and thus far more to be feared, than dying oneself, according to Socrates, and so really it is the jury, and not Socrates himself, that is in grave danger

• On one hand, he quite explicitly claims that he knows nothing, and that his wisdom lies in his acknowledgment of that fact.

• If we are all uniquely wise, we cannot possibly do evil, since evil deeds are the result of ignorance above all else. Thus, leading the philosophical life is a supreme moral duty, as it is the most direct way of overcoming evil.