Narges Tajik; Hatam Qaderi
Abstract
Impiety was one of the two charges against Socrates. As a civil religion (within which politics and religion are mutually intertwined) was the then-dominated religion in Athens, impiety was regarded as a civil laws violation. Thus, charge of impiety, as a political subversion, might lead Socrates to ...
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Impiety was one of the two charges against Socrates. As a civil religion (within which politics and religion are mutually intertwined) was the then-dominated religion in Athens, impiety was regarded as a civil laws violation. Thus, charge of impiety, as a political subversion, might lead Socrates to death. However, in Apology there are some signs of Socrates’ religiousness as swearing and the claim to be at service of the Polis’ formal gods and goddess which lead to the question whether Socrates were an impious person, in addition to the question concerning the reasons why Socrates was sentenced to death, while he has showed his religiousness. In this study, we argued the nature of Socrates’ religiousness and offered an interpretation of Socrates’ silent confrontation with Athenians as is described in the court and his advocacy there. Therefore, introducing the state of religion in Athens, it would be shown that Socrates goes not deep in the inspirations, but intervening personal negative accounts, argues for a private religious experience, while does not offers any substitution for the formal religion.
