![]() Research: Half the class is the prosecution team (PT) and the other half is the defense team (DT). ![]() The supplemental materials at the end provide some study questions for various primary source readings. The lesson plan below outlines the trial activity and assessment that follow, and includes guiding essential questions for the trial. This activity involves retrying Socrates, using as the sources of evidence relevant Platonic dialogues ( Euthyphro, Republic, Apology), Aristophanes’ Clouds, Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, and secondary sources such as Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy. ![]() His trial and death have remained controversial until today. Socrates was found guilty and ultimately executed. In 399 BCE Socrates was tried by an Athenian jury on charges of (a) denying the existence of deities, (b) introducing new deities, and (c) corrupting the youth of Athens. The question whether morality is relative to cultural norms or objective and universal in nature, the tension between justice and power, the question whether ideas that directly challenge tradition and authority strengthen or threaten democracy, the nature and extent of civic obligation, and the emergence of the axial age in classical Athens and its conflict with older perennial beliefs. ![]() Through this activity based on the trial of Socrates, students will think together about many issues, including: the compatibility of religious piety with philosophical inquiry, ![]()
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