Abstract

Aristotle famously claims that the essence of citizenship is participation in “administration of justice, and in offices” (Pol 3.1.1275a22-23, cf. 1275b19-21). Socrates was (not very enthusiastically) a citizen of Athens in Aristotle’s paradigmatic sense; but historical studies have shown that Socrates’ contemporaries took the essence of citizenship to be “sharing in the honors” of the polis by honoring the gods, participating in worship, and benefiting the community. The results of his trial show that he was not universally regarded as an excellent citizen by his contemporaries, as they understood citizenship in Athens, though later generations apparently revised their opinion. Doubtless Plato and Xenophon took Socrates to be an exemplary citizen, though their texts do not explicitly say so, since in their accounts of Socrates, citizenship per se is not often their focus. The character of Socrates, as described by Plato and Xenophon, has had an important influence on the historical development of the idea of citizenship. My major goal here is to show how the character of Socrates both exemplifies and challenges parameters described by recent theoreticians.