Preview

Arguments Against Socrates Crito

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1055 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Arguments Against Socrates Crito
Plato's Crito
Plato's "Crito" is a dialogue between Socrates and one of his closest friends Crito. The entire dialogue takes place in Socrates prison cell, where he awaits execution. Crito visits Socrates before dawn in order to persuade him to escape from prison and flee to another city or country. Crito has made all the necessary arrangements to smuggle Socrates out of prison to safety. To Crito's despair Socrates seems quite willing to accept his execution, and so Crito presents as many arguments as he can to persuade Socrates to escape. Socrates manages through a logical thinking process to demount all of Crito's arguments for escaping the prison.
Crito presents three arguments for why Socrates should escape. The first argument suggest
…show more content…
But on the other hand this choice has to be made "on attaining manhood". If the individual decides to stay and live there then he is automatically participating in the law making process and he engages in the "political association" (The Politics). In conclusion he must completely obey any decision the state makes concerning him even if this decision involves his death. He continues and states that if he would escape, the city and its laws could be destroyed. The judicial system would have no more power because the people will stop trusting the system. Chaos would be the imminent outcome. Therefore we get to another minor premise that states that destroying Athens laws will hurt its citizens. Committing an act that could harm other people is against Socrates premise of living well. By harming other people you destroy your own character and conscience. According to Socrates life is not worth living with a ruined conscience the same as it is not worth living "with a body which is worn out and ruined in health"

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Plato's Crito Worksheet

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages

    3. Socrates says “As we have agreed so far, we must examine next whether it is just for me to try to get out of here when Athenians have not acquitted me.” In the exchanges following this statement, he obtains Crito’s…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead on the tracks there are five people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are some distance off the tracks on a footbridge standing next to a very large or fat man; we will call him the portly fella. You can push the man off the bridge, and his body will fall onto the tracks and stop the trolley from killing the five people, but will kill the portly fella. You have two options: (1) Do nothing and let the trolley kill the five people. (2) Push the man onto the tracks, where it is likely to kill the one person. What would you do in this situation? Push the portly fella, or just watch as the five people on the tracks reach their own demise.…

    • 1959 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Socrates looks to the priest to tell him what exactly is pious so that he may educate himself as to why he would be perceived as impious. Found in the Apology, another of Plato's Five Dialogues, Socrates aims to defend his principles to the five hundred and one person jury. Finally, the Crito, an account of Socrates' final discussion with his good friend Crito, Socrates is offered an opportunity to escape the prison and his death sentence. As is known, Socrates rejected the suggestion. It is in the Euthyphro and the Apology that it can be deduced that Socrates is not guilty as charged, he had done nothing wrong and he properly defended himself. However, in the Crito, it is shown that Socrates is guilty only in the interpretation and enforcement of Athens' laws through the court system and its jurors. Socrates' accusations of being blasphemous are also seen as…

    • 1659 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the other hand, if he disobeys the advice of the expert and listen to the advice of the others he will eventually suffer and harm his own body (47c). However, Socrates refer to something else that will be damaged other than the body as he says “we will permanently damage and corrupt something that we used to say becomes better by justice and is harmed by injustice” (47d). Here, although not clear, it seems to be that that part of us that becomes better by justice and ruined by injustice is our soul. Socrates then moves on and states that life is not worth living with a damaged body and so, as the soul is worth much more than the body, life…

    • 1091 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Crito

    • 638 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Crito offers Socrates to escape prison and run away to another city, because he says it will be painful for him to lose such a good friend this way and that there are many people waiting to help, and also that they will be disappointed if he didn’t escape. Socrates says he is worried that if he escapes Crito and his companions will be in danger. Crito says it is easy to bribe them because he and his friends have enough money.…

    • 638 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story of Crito, Socrates is in prison and awaiting his execution that he was found guilty by corrupting the youth and also supporting other gods that the city of Athens did not. Throughout his trial, Socrates argued each of the things he was charged for and made it very clear that it was not just for him to be found guilty for these actions. The jury ended up finding Socrates guilty through a very slim vote that was not necessarily fair by any means. As Socrates sat in his cell, one of his very faithful friends, Crito, decided to come talk to him. He gave Socrates the opportunity to escape prison and live the life of a wanted man instead of facing his execution. As the story of Crito goes on, he asks himself a number of questions deciding on what he was going to do and whether it would be just or unjust for him to escape prison. Socrates eventually decided that he was going to stay in prison and face his execution instead of escaping, for the act of escaping prison would be unjust and breaking the laws of the city. I agree with Socrates’ decision that he made and feel like he did the just thing by facing his execution.…

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He believes that these laws has given him birth, have educated him, raised him and have shared the wealth of Athens with him. Socrates thinks that the people of Athens are free to leave if they find the laws unjust, but if they want to stay then they must abide by the laws of Athens. The only thing that he points out are the people in power. He thinks that the people who are in power have changed the original laws for their own benefit. “been wronged, not by the Laws, but by men” (p 54). Socrates accepts death penalty because he wants the laws should be remain in place. Given opportunities such as exile or apology, he argues that if he escape from the prison, it will destroy the laws of the city and, eventually, the city because according to Socrates no city can survive without its laws being enforced. Therefore, Socrates steadfast by his believes of not violating any…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crito Argument

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The dialogue of The Crito evaluates one of the last days of Socrates life. Upon which, Socrates has been awaiting his execution for a month due to a religious mission to the island of Delios, sacred to Apollo during which no executions can take place, insinuating that Socrates has had much time to ponder his sentence and escape, as well as the result of further action. Crito eagerly attempts persuading Socrates to escape by presenting many gripping arguments. Socrates responds to these arguments by asking/interrogating Crito with questions surrounding pressing life principles that both men agree on and by doing so provides an argument against Crito’s encouragements of escape.…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This higher law can be the divine laws of reason. Socrates may be consistent in his approach to just and unjust law. A paradox may exist between the Athenian Law and the laws of reason. What Socrates could have been suggesting is that it would have been impossible for him not to philosophize and use his reason. In this way, to not be politically disobedient, he would have to change the very nature of his being. In essence, Socrates was not ‘disobeying’; rather he was incapable of ‘obeying’. An example would be if the Athenian State asked him to pass through the eye of a threading needle. In this instance, the task is impossible and by default Socrates would defy the state – not be cause won’t but because he can’t. It is important to note that in all instances leading up to the trial, that Socrates faced justice vs. unjust choices. The final ultimatum was an impossible instruction: actively terminate your ability to dialogue and reason. To obey the state, Socrates drank the hemlock. This was the only way to consistently obey the state and be…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the Crito, Plato introduces several arguments that Socrates makes on whether or not it would be just for him to escape from prison when the Athenians have not acquitted him. Socrates begins by arguing that one must never do wrong. One of the most compelling arguments that he goes on to make is that doing harm to someone is wrong and therefore one must never engage in retaliatory harm. Under certain circumstances, such as self-defense, retaliatory harm is necessary. Socrates also argues that whenever you violate an agreement, you harm the person you made the agreement with. Therefore, escaping is wrong. In this paper, I shall argue that although the arguments support…

    • 1536 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    For these two articles that we read in Crito and Apology by Plato, we could know Socrates is an enduring person with imagination, because he presents us with a mass of contradictions: Most eloquent men, yet he never wrote a word; ugliest yet most profoundly attractive; ignorant yet wise; wrongfully convicted, yet unwilling to avoid his unjust execution. Behind these conundrums is a contradiction less often explored: Socrates is at once the most Athenian, most local, citizenly, and patriotic of philosophers; and yet the most self-regarding of Athenians. Exploring that contradiction, between ¡§Socrates the loyal Athenian citizen¡¨ and ¡§Socrates the philosophical critic of Athenian society,¡¨ will help to position Plato¡¦s Socrates in an Athenian legal and historical context; it allows us to reunite Socrates the literary character and Athens the democratic city that tried and executed him. Moreover, those help us to understand Plato¡¦s presentation of the strange legal and ethical drama.…

    • 1653 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    It’s wondered why Socrates didn’t leave Athens when he was given the opportunity, but it’s very clear that he was content with Athens, and the way it worked. He made his entire life there for seventy years. If he weren’t content with Athens he definitely wouldn’t have stayed there for that long. Therefore if he left it would’ve been an injustice to Athens, and it would’ve gone against his moral principles.…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He must do this regardless of the opinion of the majority or possible consequences for himself; he must act only in accordance to the opinion of the few wise, knowledgeable men who understand what is justice, and the laws of the State. Unfortunately, in all of the dialogues the author of this essay has read5, Socrates never clearly explains what ‘the laws’ really are — they remain a sort of abstraction, a divine essence of justice. However, this does not invalidate our definition of a champion of…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Plato's Crito

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Socrates, addressing Crito’s argument to help Socrates escape from jail, tells Crito that his enthusiasm is appreciated however it is too emotional for figuring out what is right and wrong. He explains that decisions must be made rationally, and that just because circumstances may change, the values that he has always…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Socrates Vs Crito

    • 2078 Words
    • 9 Pages

    What will they think if Socrates is not in charge of his kids? Socrates contends that the conclusion of a specialist is more essential than the sentiment of the dominant part. He gives the sample of somebody in preparing. Such a man does not pay consideration on the counsel of the overall population, however to his coach. In the event that he listened to popular assessment (take steroids, eat whatever you need, train 20 hours a day), he could hurt his body. Socrates extends the relationship to settling on what the right route is to act. On the off chance that we listen to the larger part instead of specialists we could hurt our souls, the some portion of us that is mangled by wrong activities and profited by right ones(Crito, 47a-48a). Socrates concedes that as a greater part, the overall population has the ability to kill individuals, yet he expresses that the most essential thing is not living, but rather carrying on with a decent life, so it is not worth after the assessment of the dominant part in the event that it means relinquishing something that is critical for living a decent life.(48b) . The above is one of Socrates' most key standards - that the truly critical thing is not to live but rather to live well. Thusly he considers whether it is ethically right to pay off the watchmen and escape. Socrates starts considering so as to tend to this issue the results for the city of Athens. He says that the laws and the city could be crushed on the off chance that he got away. Lawful judgments could lose their power in the event that they were invalidated by private nationals, and a city without laws would not stay in place for…

    • 2078 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays