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english hsc- speeches study notes

Study Notes- English
Socrates- “No evil can happen”

Purpose
Socrates’ actual purpose is to defend freedom of conscience.
His ostensible purpose is to be acquitted.

Audience
501 judges of Athens in 399BC.

Context
Athens was a burgeoning democracy and has just been through the ‘glory days’ of Pericles (440BC). They have just fought the Peloponnesian war against Sparta and its democracy is under threat.

Techniques
• He writes in first person, as he is defending himself.
• Uses a morality statement to begin
“Thou doest wrong to think that a man of any use at all is to weigh the risk of life and death, and not to consider one thing only, whether when h...

Posted by: John Mayes

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