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An Analysis of Socratic Irony in The Apology

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             The origin of Socratic irony can be traced back to when the Oracle of Delphi told a friend of Socrates that no man was wiser than Socrates. This was the beginning of a journey by Socrates to figure out what the oracle meant. He would question the proclaimed wisest men of Athens while at the same time professing his own ignorance. This led him to the conclusion that he was wiser because he realized he did not know that much, which was in contrast to these men who thought they knew more than they really did. His life becomes a mission to try to get the people to question things and not take everything at face value. The youth of Athens were the ones who listened to him the most and began to question things and this infuriated the people in charge (SparkNotes Editors, n.d.). The meaning of the method Plato uses through Socrates to convey his message to his audience has been debated by philosophers for years and while most of them agree on the use of irony in the Apology they don't agree on the extent or the type of irony. Gregory Vlastos argues that the type of irony that Plato uses was not meant to deceive as the word had come to mean in previous writings but more in a witty way. He believed that Plato used what he referred to as "complex irony" instead of "simple irony." According to Vlastos, "in simple irony what is said is simply not what is meant, and in complex irony what is said both is and isn't what is meant" (Vlastos, 1987). Paula Gottlieb argued in her response to Vlastos' article that she did not really think Plato changed the meaning of irony; it was more a result of the fact that Plato had two different intended audiences. The "in-crowd" made up of Socrates' followers would get the wit and humor in his remarks, while the outsiders, who were either the men Socrates had publicly humiliated or friends of these men would feel angry and deceived (Gottlieb, 1992).


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