Aristotle goes to court for free dinners.

                Today in class we finished our Socrates/pep talk slideshow. We went over Socrates’ trial in more detail, as well as his death. Socrates was accused of poisoning the youth of Athens and of impiety. Impiety in this case meaning that Aristotle wasn’t loyal to the gods of Greece (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and so forth). Aristotle didn’t hire any lawyers, instead choosing to defend himself. Aristotle didn’t deny that he was the one who said those things, and openly stated that he did. Aristotle actually used philosophy to try to win the court case. Aristotle’s two major arguing points were that he A.: Was the gadfly to a horse, meant to stir up the horse from being complacent and to doing other things; and B.: That he was doing Athens a favor and deserved free food. Aristotle almost won the trial, out of 500 people he lost somewhere around 221 to 227. Aristotle was sentenced to death by drinking hemlock, and he accepted the punishment due to not wanting to disrespect Athenian democracy.