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Socrates Vs Crito A Decision Of Life

Socrates Vs. Crito: A Decision Of Life Essay, Research Paper


Socrates vs. Crito:


A Decision of Life


Courtney


Intro. to Philosophy


May 29, 2000


Summer Pre-Session


Socrates vs. Crito:


A Decision of Life


The dialogue Crito, by Plato, recounts the last days of Socrates, immediately before his


execution was going to take place in Athens. In the dialogue, Socrates? friend, Crito, proposes


that Socrates escape from prison. Socrates considers this proposal, trying to decide if escaping


would be ?just? and ?morally justified.? Eventually, Socrates concludes that the act is considered


?unjust? and ?morally unjustified.? Socrates decides to accept his death penalty and execution.


Socrates was a man who would pursuit truth in all matters (Kemerling 1999). In his


refusal to accept exile from Athens or a commitment to silence as a penalty, he takes the penalty


of death and is thrown into prison.


While Socrates is awaiting his execution, many of his friends, including Crito, arrive with a


foolproof plan for his escape from Athens to live in exile voluntarily. Socrates calmly debates


with each friend over the moral value and justification of such an act.


?…people who do not know you and me will believe that I might


have saved you if I had been willing to give money, but that I did


not care.?


-Crito (Plato 569)


Crito believed that by helping Socrates to escape, he could go on to fulfill his personal


obligations. Also, if Socrates does not follow the plan, many people would assume that his


friends did not care about him enough to help him escape or that his friends are not willing to give


their time or money in order to help him. Therefore, Crito goes on to argue that Socrates ought


to escape from the prison.


After listening to Crito?s arguments, Socrates dismisses them as irrelevant to a decision


about what action is truly right.


?Now you, Crito, are not going to die to-morrow-…-and therefore


you are disinterested and not liable to be deceived by the circumstances


in which you are placed.?


-Socrates (Plato 571)


In the arguments that Socrates makes, what other people think does not matter. The only


opinions that should matter are the ones of the individuals that truly know. ?The truth alone


deserves to be the basis for decisions about human action, so the only proper approach is to


engage in the sort of careful moral reasoning by means of which one may hope to reveal it?


(Kemerling 1999). According to Socrates, the only opinion that he is willing to consider would


be that of the state.


?…if you go forth, returning evil for evil, and injury for injury,…we shall


be angry with you while you live, and our brethren, the laws in the world


below, will receive you as an enemy; for they will know you have done


your best to destroy us.?


-Socrates (Plato 577)


Socrates? argument moves from one of a general moral decision to the morality of his


specific case. He basically says:


-One ought never to do wrong,


-But it is always wrong to disobey the state,


-Therefore, one ought never to disobey the state (Kemerling 1999)


Since avoiding the sentence handed down by the jury would be disobeying the state, Socrates


decides not to escape. Socrates chose to honor his commitment to truth and morality, even


though it cost him his life.


One of the main arguments made by Socrates,


?Think not of life and chi

ldren first, and of justice afterwards, but


of justice first…For neither will you nor any that belong to you be


happier or holier or juster in this life, or happier in another, if you


do as Crito bids.?


-Socrates (Plato 577),


is one of the most important and crucial in the Crito dialogue.


Socrates provides a very convincing argument of why he should not escape from the


Athenian prison. He states that if he does as Crito suggests and escapes, it will not be justifiable


nor true. Although his family and friends will be much happier if he escapes, he will not follow


the justice or moral code of the state in which he was born and raised.


Socrates also gives the idea that if he were to escape, his family and friends would be


happy for him, but their fellow citizens and their state in which they reside would not. The


government and citizens of the state may take their frustration of this injustice out on the friends


and family of Socrates.


In this argument, Socrates believes that the state would say, ?think not of life and children


first, and of justice afterwards?(Plato 566). He says this as a counter-argument to statement made


by Crito saying that he should think of the children that he would be abandoning by not escaping.


Crito said that he should escape and raise and teach his children, instead of keeping his penalty.


Socrates? statement instead comes from the other end, where he should not think of his children


first, but of the truth and morality of the state in which his children will live and grow. If he does


escape, the state will lose some of that morality, and his children will be looked down upon. Also,


his children will not receive the same kind of justice that they may have gotten if he had not


escaped.


Justice seemed to be a very important factor to Socrates, and is part of his pursuit of truth


for all matters. Justice and truth, in the Crito dialogue, go hand-in-hand. Without truth, justice


cannot prevail over the wrongdoing in life.


Socrates believed that it is always wrong to break an agreement, and continuing to live his


life voluntarily in the state of Athens, constitutes disobedience against the state. He argues that


obeying the state is a requirement right up until death. He says that by not obeying the state that


he was raised in, is like not obeying his parents that raised him.


Socrates was a man who chose his commitment to truth, morality and philosophy over life.


He had a great commitment to his state, therefore by disobeying it, he would be committing


suicide in a sense. If Socrates had disobeyed his state, he would never be allowed to enter it


again, nor would any other allow him to live peacefully.


His arguments throughout the whole dialogue were very strong and made sense. Socrates


looked out for his state, while Crito?s arguments were based on himself and how others would


view him. Socrates? conclusion to stay in the prison may have cost him his life, but saved the


morality and truth of Athens.


Bibliography


Kemerling, Garth. ?Socrates: Philosophical Life?. 29 May 2000


*http://people.delphi.com/gkemerling/2d.htm*.


Stumpf, Samuel Enoch. ?Plato: The Problem of Intellectual and Moral Consistency?.


Philosophy:History & Problems. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.


Kemerling, Garth. ?Socrates: Philosophical Life?. 29 May 2000


.


Stumpf, Samuel Enoch. ?Plato: The Problem of Intellectual and Moral Consistency?.


Philosophy:History & Problems. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.

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