Examples Of Socrates Corrupting The Youth

Socrates undermines the claim that he is intentionally corrupting the youth by asking Meletus a series of questions that make him explain his reasoning for accusing Socrates of this crime. Socrates would start by placing Meletus into a hole with his many questions asking who exactly was good for the youth and it turned out to be everyone but Socrates. He continues this argument by bringing up why would he corrupt the youth when they could potentially be his neighbors one day. It is common sense that if someone is corrupted by evil they are more than likely to cause evil themselves which would harm others which is ultimately detrimental to society as a whole. In that case no one would intentionally cause corruption and if they did people should
tell them that they are causing harm so that they can stop the behavior but not be punished for the action. Socrates then ask Meletus if he is telling people to not believe in the gods or could it be that he does not believe in any gods at all which would make him an atheist. Meletus says that Socrates believes the sun is stone and the moon is the earth, However Socrates discredits this by mentioning Anaxagoras and how he states his point of view in books that the youth may read. However, he breaks it down further by saying how can he believe in the gods but at the same time not believe in them. Socrates does this by mentioning many examples such as if you believ in human things and issues how could you not believe in humans themselves which eventually leads to how can you believe in demi gods with believing in actual gods. He does this so Meletus would be seen as incompetent to make a true argument against him since everyone of his claims have been broken down and proved false.