The Reputation Of Socrates In The Five Dialogues By Crito
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.
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The teachings of Socrates in Plato’s The Five Dialogues provide an answer to the dilemma of the portly fella. The book of Crito portrays the scene of Socrates in his jail cell awaiting execution when he’s approached by an old friend, Crito, a philosopher and nobleman with sufficient funds to help Socrates escape from his prison cell. Crito repeatedly argues with Socrates in an attempt to convince him to flee his cell. The first argument that Crito presents is his argument of reputation in which he states, “Surely there can be no worse reputation than to value money more highly than one’s friends, for the majority will not believe that you yourself were not willing to leave prison while we were eager for you to do so.” Crito is essentially saying that that people will think that Crito chose his money over saving Socrates to which Socrates simply rebuts, “My good Crito, why should we care so much for what the majority think? The most reasonable people, to whom one should pay more attention, will believe that things were done as they were done” (Plato, Five Dialogues; Crito: pg. 47). Effectively Socrates is saying that Crito shouldn’t concern himself with the majority but with the reasonable because the reasonable see it the way it is. Crito then responds saying that the majority has the power to inflict the greatest evils, which in this case is death for Socrates, “You see Socrates, that one must also pay attention to the opinion of the majority. Your present situation makes clear that the majority can inflict not the least but pretty well the greatest evils if one is slandered among them” (Plato, Five Dialogues; Crito: pg. 47). In the portly fella case, you must be reasonable, and the reasonable thing is to not push the portly fella onto the tracks. A reasonable person wouldn’t even think to murder somebody in order save others, especially when you share no association with the other
The teachings of Socrates in Plato’s The Five Dialogues provide an answer to the dilemma of the portly fella. The book of Crito portrays the scene of Socrates in his jail cell awaiting execution when he’s approached by an old friend, Crito, a philosopher and nobleman with sufficient funds to help Socrates escape from his prison cell. Crito repeatedly argues with Socrates in an attempt to convince him to flee his cell. The first argument that Crito presents is his argument of reputation in which he states, “Surely there can be no worse reputation than to value money more highly than one’s friends, for the majority will not believe that you yourself were not willing to leave prison while we were eager for you to do so.” Crito is essentially saying that that people will think that Crito chose his money over saving Socrates to which Socrates simply rebuts, “My good Crito, why should we care so much for what the majority think? The most reasonable people, to whom one should pay more attention, will believe that things were done as they were done” (Plato, Five Dialogues; Crito: pg. 47). Effectively Socrates is saying that Crito shouldn’t concern himself with the majority but with the reasonable because the reasonable see it the way it is. Crito then responds saying that the majority has the power to inflict the greatest evils, which in this case is death for Socrates, “You see Socrates, that one must also pay attention to the opinion of the majority. Your present situation makes clear that the majority can inflict not the least but pretty well the greatest evils if one is slandered among them” (Plato, Five Dialogues; Crito: pg. 47). In the portly fella case, you must be reasonable, and the reasonable thing is to not push the portly fella onto the tracks. A reasonable person wouldn’t even think to murder somebody in order save others, especially when you share no association with the other