One (but by no means the only) way of answering this question is to suggest that Socrates' ethical assertions are not really assertions of fact. They are maxims more than substantial claims, and cannot really be verified or disproved. Certainly, this can be said of his claim that the unexamined life is not worth living. The assertion that no one ever knowingly does wrong is a little more difficult to step around, but can be managed through an appeal to some of Socrates' other maxims. Socrates tends to equate wisdom with goodness, seeing the ultimate end of wisdom and knowledge as being that it gives us the wisdom and knowledge to act rightly. Wisdom would not be so valuable if it were not so intimately connected to the good. Certainly, Socrates, the wisest of men, has lived faultlessly. If anything, he serves as evidence in favor of the claim that knowledge helps us to avoid evil.

Socrates is quite explicit on this question. Getting acquitted is completely immaterial to him. The only thing of importance is the truth. Rather than provide arguments in his defense, Socrates insists solely on speaking the truth, which he feels should be sufficient to acquit him if only the jury were just. Socrates points out that he has always been consistent in his behavior and his values, and he would be doing himself a great injustice to be inconsistent now. Rather than behave differently before a court, he continues to behave as he always has.

We might want to question whether all of this is true, however. This is certainly the rhetoric that Socrates employs, but his speech is so laden with irony that we should not be hasty to take his words at face value. Certainly, he seems to accept his condemnation, but we see in his many rhetorical flourishes and his merciless attack on Meletus that pure truth is not his only aim. Perhaps he also wants to have a deeper effect on the jury, to lead them to acknowledge the unjust state of affairs that persists in the deteriorating city- state.

The answer to this question largely depends upon your conception of philosophy. The majority of philosophers since Plato have followed in Plato's tradition, using philosophical methods to try to build up positive systems of knowledge. This tradition includes Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, and most other major philosophers. However, there is another line of thinking that applies to different philosophers to greater and lesser extents that is more in accord with Socrates' teaching. These philosophers see the role of philosophy as one of provoking and critiquing thought without building any positive assertions of its own. Arguments could be made for including both Nietzsche and Wittgenstein in this camp.