Paul Sagar is a lecturer in political theory at King's College London and the guy who played Thrasymachus in book 1.

He actually doesn't like reading Plato very much. I ask him why.

In this episode, Socrates goes up against his most formidable opponent yet: the sophist Thrasymachus.

Thrasymachus leaps at Socrates “like a wild beast” and yells at him for playing dirty. Then, he tells the boys that morality is a lie and that they should do as much injustice as they can get away with.

Socrates responds by winning the argument in the least persuasive way possible.

Executing an innocent 70-year-old philosophy might look bad but you had to be there.

Topics include:

Why a reasonable, well-intentioned Athenian may have voted to kill Socrates.

Why politics might get interested in you, even if you’re not interested in politics.

The difference between morality tales and philosophy tales.

A lot of Athenians suspect Socrates of plotting to overthrow democracy. On the other hand, Socrates says that when Athenians start thinking politics, they turn into a paranoid mob. This episode covers both sides and it honestly sounds like Socrates is complaining about Twitter.

Topics:

-Why people who are into politics are so annoying.

-How the “political mindset” differs from the “philosophical mindset.”

-Whether Socrates is an enemy of the state.

Some people think that philosophy is an outrage to religion and a danger to morality. Was this why the Athenians killed Socrates? Are these ever good reasons to kill a philosopher? Do people say philosophy is dangerous just to make it sound sexier?

Socrates insults his jury, dares them to sentence him to death, then makes fun of them when they do.

Unswerving commitment to truth? Troll’s defence? Suicide by jury? All of the above?

Socrates, daddy of Greek philosophy, is on trial for impiety and corrupting the youth.

According to him, his only crime was trolling the city of Athens.

The Apology is an account of Socrates’s court defence, told by his student Plato. This is part 1 of a 4-part series on this book.