A Note on the Text

Plato wrote the Apology in ancient Greek sometime around 399 to 390 BC, within a few years of the actual trial. He was present at the trial himself and almost certainly heard Socrates speak. Whether the speech in this dialogue is what Socrates actually said, or Plato's ideal version of what he said, has been debated by scholars for centuries. Most believe the answer is somewhere in between: shaped by Plato, but rooted in memory.

This book is an adaptation, not a translation.

That distinction matters. A translation renders the words of the original as closely as the target language allows. An adaptation keeps the arguments, the structure, and the core claims, but rewrites the language for a different kind of reader.

The source for this adaptation is the English translation of Plato's dialogues by Benjamin Jowett, first published in Oxford in 1871, now in the public domain. Jowett's translation is accurate, scholarly, and widely used. It is also written in the long, winding sentences of Victorian academic prose, which most modern readers find slow going. That is the gap this edition is trying to close.

Every argument Socrates makes in Jowett's text is in this adaptation. Every key claim is present. The order of the arguments matches Jowett's order. Where the original uses difficult vocabulary, we have used plain everyday words. Where the original uses a single long sentence with multiple clauses, we have broken it into two or three shorter sentences. Where the original speaks in Victorian English, we have written in contemporary English that a student can read without stopping.

What we have not done is add claims Socrates did not make, or put emotions into his voice that the original does not support. When context is needed, we have added it in italic editor's notes before each section, not in Socrates' own voice. Those italic notes are our words. Everything else is an adaptation of his.

Readers who want the literal Greek text should read it in Greek, or in Jowett's own translation, which is freely available online at Project Gutenberg (ebook numbers 1656 for Apology, 1657 for Crito, 1658 for Phaedo). This edition is for everyone else. For the student who has never read philosophy. For the young person standing at the beginning of their life. For anyone who takes seriously the question of how to live.

That was always who Socrates was talking to.