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…
Martin Luther King Jr. and, Socrates hold altogether different assessments with regards to matters of obeying just laws and how unjust laws ought to be taken care of. I concur with Martin Luther King Jr's. way to deal with common defiance and I additionally agree that steps should be taken towards changing unjust laws. A nation's headway starts from the changing of laws – that is the delayed consequence of people going to stand up for what is right…
Socrates was put on trial for his life after being charged with corrupting the youth of Athens and for not believing in the Gods of whom were approved by the state. Socrates often would often rock the boat by discussing status quo. He would produce questions, create debates and engage in arguments with others to prove his views about certain laws being unjust. Socrates however, did not believe in breaking the law, he often stood up and represented the laws through personification. ?What complaint have you against us and the state, that you are trying to destroy us?? (Plato 50d) He made it clear that by living in a city where the laws have been there just as long if not longer than the person breaking them when it is convenient, would eventually lead to the society becoming an anarchy. Through one person disobeying the law it is unfair to those whom obey it. Eventually others will begin disobeying too. Doing what one wants when they wish to is not fair and it leads to chaos and destruction of both the city and the city’s system. The effects could easily multiply and bestow a decline in law and order. In an extreme case scenario, it could lead to civil…
And so as Socrates questions people he makes them aware of their own ignorance and so by providing them with wisdom he is making them more “virtuous”. The reason why Socrates refused the options raised in court is because by exile he wouldn’t be able to teach people and hence wouldn’t be able to make them wiser and so failing his “duty from gods”. In the same sense; Crito suggests, that if Socrates accepts the fact that he will be executed he will be depriving his sons from his wisdom leaving them to their own ignorance, uneducated. Another concept that Socrates aims to teach is that “no one ever does wrong doing consciously”; however, Crito suggests that as Socrates awaits his death he would only be helping his enemies do wrong doing and so “consciously” doing a wrong doing. Based on the previous analysis of Crito’s arguments we come to realize that Socrates might be doing harm by not escaping prison.…
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 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.…
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.…
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…
In the article's of "Crito," by Plato, and "Letter from Birmingham Jail," by Martin Luther King, Jr., two writers make a case over whether it is moral or not to disobey laws. The question to be answered in our final paper asks whether we agree with what the Laws say about if Socrates was to escape and why we feel that way. It also asks how we think Martin Luther King would have responded to the judgment of the Laws of Athens. In this paper, I will address these questions as well as do a quick overview of each article.…
Socrates meets with some of his friends and begins discussing the meaning of justice and whether the just life is better than the unjust life. First, they contemplate the meaning of justice. Cephalus stated that justice is as simple as telling the truth and returning what you receive, Polemarchus stated that justice is giving each his due, and Thrasymachus stated that justice is the advantage of the stronger. Socrates proves each of them wrong and embarks on a discussion to find out what true justice is, and to find out whether the just man is truly happier than the unjust man, or vice versa.…
• 1. In the Apology, Socrates recounts how he disobeyed the unjust order of the Thirty Tyrants to arrest a fellow citizen; he also claims that he will never stop philosophizing, regardless of what the legally constituted political authority commands. Yet, in the Crito, Socrates provides numerous arguments for obeying the decision of the legally constituted political authority, even though the decision (to put Socrates to death) was unjust. Critically assess whether Socrates’s view about political obligation in the two texts is consistent.…
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…
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.…
In the Crito3, Socrates argues why he is not going to escape death, even though he has the means to. In order to do so, he invokes ‘the laws’ — a personified ideal form that questions him: “Tell us, Socrates, … are you going by an act of yours to overturn us — the laws and the whole State? Do you imagine that a State can subsist and not be overthrown, in which the decisions of law have no power, but are set aside and…
Plato’s theory of justice is about equality and that one deserves punishment if they do commit an unjust action. During the Crito, Socrates tries to correct a lot of points that Crito is trying to argue with him about, what it means to be justice. To be justice, means a human being that does good based on the laws that are emplaced according to the state. Good people according to Socrates are only worth considering. People that do good are considered moral people, and have opinions that should be regarded because their inputs are considered to be ethically correct. Being a human of ethical virtues means that they must not do wrong. Anything that is immoral, is considered immoral. We as humans may not intervene in activities that deem to be…