Erroneus Assumptions in The Trial and Death of Socrates Essays

In this paper, I will present and explain the argument Socrates gives for the conclusion that it is unjust for him to try to escape Athens against the will of the authorities. Socrates is in jail during this part of The Crito. Crito visits Socrates one or two days before his execution with idea of helping him escape, and moving him to a place out of the Athenian authority’s jurisdiction. During this time Socrates brings up an argument. I will be covering this argument and it is that “one must not act unjustly at all” (The Crito, pg. 71). What Socrates means by this is that no one should do anything wrong no matter what. Socrates was sentenced to death for unjust reasons. He then goes onto talk about some principle morals. One of the things he brings up is that no one should do injustice. Even if you are subject to injustice (The Crito, pg. 71). Socrates brings up the point that when someone is subject to ill-treatment it is not right to return it. After bringing up this point, Socrates goes onto stay that “there is no difference, I take it, between ill-treating people and treating them unjustly” (The Crito, pg. 71). So, Socrates creates this premise, and it is as follows “neither doing nor returning injustice is ever right, nor should one who is ill-treated defend himself by retaliation (The Crito, pg. 72).

In The Crito by Socrates, both Crito and Socrates present arguments, one that Socrates should escape prison, and one that he should not. Crito’s argument contains logic fallacies that undermine his argument and make it weak. Therefore, Socrates argument that he should remain in prison and face his death is valid and strong, and is better than Crito’s.

More importantly, Socrates’s relationship to the state is made clear during the dialogue with his friend Crito, when speaking as if Socrates is the state himself. When asking how important the state is, the law asks; “Is your…country to be honored more than…all your ancestors…that it counts for more among the gods and sensible men, that you must worship it…?” Rather than a statement, Socrates makes his point that the law must be upheld, even in his case of a death sentence. It is important to note that Socrates accepted his fate, even though he felt the accusations against him were false. Yet, as if speaking on behalf of the law, recognized that escaping would only turn those untruthful indictments into the truth, and as a destroyer of laws; “You will strengthen the conviction of the jury that they passed the right sentence on you.” By the definition of the word martyr, as one who dies for a cause, in this instance the laws of the state,

In the Crito, Socrates believes that breaking the laws of the city harms all of society. The consequences of escaping the city outweigh the benefits for it puts his family, his friends, and himself in danger. He believes in a personal morality that one must live a good and just life, and not just any life. If Socrates breaks the law then he would not be acting justly,

To introduce, Socrates was placed on trial and charged with the crime of impiety. Impiety is the lack of reverence for the gods and other sacred things. As well another major claim was that Socrates was corrupting the children of Athens. He also was believed to be an atheist, even though Socrates claimed to have a strong belief in the gods; he even believed “The god has commanded me to examine men, in oracles and in dreams and in

In the Crito, Socrates is approached by his life-long friend Crito while in prison awaiting execution. Crito used many different ways to attempt to persuade Socrates to escape. The best argument Crito uses is that he says Socrates would be betraying his children if he were to stay in prison. He says that Socrates should bring them up and educate them, not leave them. Socrates, contrary to what Crito says, feels that he has an implied contract with the State. He believes that his family staying in Athens and raising him there was the greatest compliment they could have given him, so he feels that he owes it to the State to accept its laws and to remain a willing partner to the State. Socrates’ feelings were summed up on page 64 when he says:

In Plato’s Crito, Socrates talks about his obligations to follow the law. Although Socrates understands that the Athenian democracy has committed an unjust action by sentencing him to death, he is unwilling to escape with Crito. He understands that an injustice should not be answered with injustice, but there are times when one should question the law. In Socrates’ Defense and the Crito, Plato discusses when one ought to follow the law and when ought to not follow the law. One not only has the obligations to follow the law, but they are also obliged to break the law if it is unjust because it will then improve The Law.

To this question, first Socrates says that he should not revenge injustice. Because doing injustice is bad in any circumstances (Crito 49b), to return injustice just because of having injustice done onto himself would bad also (Crito 49c). Therefore Socrates should not commit injustice just to get even with Athens. Injustice is bad because it harms, and disobedience to the law would harm the city (Crito 50b); so it seems that to disobey the law would be an injustice. But why should Socrates obey the law of the city? Socrates reasons that since the city has done him great benefactions, such as giving birth to his life, taking care of his physical upbringing and his education, and granting him long years of benefits from the legal system (Crito 50e - 51c), Socrates owns the state a strong duty of gratitude just as a child would own to his father. One of those duties is to obey the state (like how a child obeys his parents), which always has included the possibility of death such as in times of war (Crito 51b). Socrates should obey the city because he has made an agreement to do so. This agreement is the social contract that he has implicitly accepted and lived under for 70 years. This contract is legitimate because Socrates had a thorough understanding of the legal system (Crito 51e - 52a), he did not leave the city when he was given the fair chance all his life (Crito 51 c-e), and that he

He also explains to Crito that the citizen is bound to the laws like a child is bound to a parent, and so to go against the laws would be like striking a parent. Rather than simply break the laws and escape, Socrates should try to persuade the laws to let him go. These laws present the citizen's duty to them in the form of a kind of social contract. By choosing to live in Athens, a citizen is endorsing the laws, and is willing to follower by them. Therefore, if he was to break from prison now, having so consistently validated the social contract, he would be making himself an outlaw who would not be welcome in any other civilized state for the rest of his life. Furthermore when he dies, he will be harshly judged in the underworld for behaving unjustly toward his city's laws. In this way, Socrates chooses not to attempt escape but he dies as a martyr, not for himself, but for his city and its system of justice.

	In addition to Socrates’ position on the devotion and faith he has given to the state of Athens Socrates’ also has a position regarding the role of the majority in his decision not to escape. Socrates believes that "fate has come about me…I shall not agree with you, not even if the power of the majority were to frighten us with more bogeys, as if we were children, with threats of incarcerations and executions and confiscation of property….Crito, whether this argument will appear any different in any way different to me in my present circumstances, or whether it remains the same, whether we are to abandon it or believe it" (Plato 46-47). In this case Socrates is saying that regardless of what the situation may be he is standing forthright in his decision to face his death. Socrates is trying to explain to Crito that even if he is trying to bully him into exile it will not work. Crito says that Socrates is making a cowardly move by facing death, whereas Socrates believes that he is the one who will end up the stronger man in the end. I think the point Socrates is trying to get across is that regardless of how the current situation is phrased, or even if you were to ignore the present situation completely—it all

The ship has now arrived at Cape Sunium in Attica, Crito visits Socrates and informs him that he has arranged an escape for him. Should Socrates escape? If Socrates chooses to do so, what is he putting at risk? If Socrates chooses execution is he accepting a death sentence? Under pressure and no time for deliberation what ought Socrates to do?

Breaking the law is simple to do, any person can make a decision to not care and end up in jail. Socrates was a man who believed in the law and willing to stay in jail for life for a crime that he didn’t commit. However, there are some circumstances that a person may have to break the law to be heard and get their point across and be heard and Crito had another idea he wanted Socrates to break the law and get out of jail, Crito explains to Socrates that why be in jail for a crime that he didn’t commit wouldn’t it make more guilty being in jail but Socrates significance of the law was deeper than Crito’s. He believed that just because the people of the law are crooks and want him in jail or trying to easily to pin things on him it isn’t the law fault for a person’s mistake. The law has always helped him since the day he was born he benefited from the law and that is

In Crito by the Greek philosopher Plato, Crito, who is a good friend of Socrates arrives at the jail where Socrates is held to help him escape, along with other reasons. However, Socrates refuses to leave the jail because he believes it is unjust to disobey the law. For this paper, I will be explaining Socrates' position in greater detail. Socrates decides not to escape from the prison because he agreed to the terms of his sentence with the Athenian state. Escaping would go against his belief that man should "…do what he has agreed with someone to be right." (pg. 541).

Throughout this exchange Crito lets it be known that himself and Socrates’ other friends have sufficient funds available to bribe anybody who threatens either theirs or Socrates’ well-being. This is evidenced by the very fact that Crito has bribed a guard in the prison to be able to converse with Socrates in the first place. Although Socrates is able to refute these concerns of Crito quite easily that is not the point. The point is that behind all of Crito’s given reasons as to why Socrates should escape, it is the figure of Crito, not Socrates, as the one who is being harmed by the ultimate finale of Socrates’ execution. A great deal of irony exists in this exchange also. Crito is so blinded by his subjective notions of what justice is that he advocates and actually carries out the act of the bribery of officials without either realizing or consciously acknowledging that this is breaking the law. This irony is almost humorous by the fact that what the two men are

The author, who is Plato, concludes that Socrates’ decision of accepting the death penalty was the correct thing to do. Plato mentioned a list of arguments that Socrates’ stated about morality. One of Socrates’ central arguments to Crito that was mentioned by Plato, was “you should never do wrong, even in return for wrong done to you.” Plato agreed that it was wrong of the people of Athens to put Socrates on trial for his life just because they thought he was corrupting to youth and worshipping the wrong gods. But according to Socrates’ argument, even if someone does something wrong to him, it is not morally right to do something wrong back to that person. If Socrates would escape from prison, he would be doing something wrong back to the people of Athens which would be going against his own argument. Another argument of Socrates that Plato shares is “you should never injury others, even in return for injury done to you.” The people of Athens are injuring Socrates by executing him, but Socrates agrees that if he continues to live, he will be continuing to corrupt the youth and worship other gods, which is injuring other people. By continuing to live, this would be going against one of his