The Credibility Of Socrates

FUTTER, DYLAN. “Socrates Human Wisdom.” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 52.1 (2013): 61-79. Humanities International Complete. Print.

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,

Crito and agreement with two guards to help Socrates escape his execution and live in exile, but Socrates refuses to escape. Crito believes that he would be committing two evil he he let Socrates die; “For if you die I might have saved you if I bad been willing to give money, but that I did not care. Now, can there be a worse disgrace than this- that i should be taught to value money more than the life of a friend?” (44) One must value life over money and life over death. Crito continues to try and convince his friend that escaping is the right thing to do. Crito argues that if Socrates is to stay he would be committing an injustice for he is wrongfully sentenced. “Socrates in betraying your own life when you might be saved; this is playing into the hands of you enemies and destroyers; and moreover I should say that you were betraying your children for you might bring them up and educate them.” (45) One must value his family his friends and his children. As Crito stated Socrates choosing to not escape as is an act of him abandoning his wife and children and he should be ashamed. One must also value and obey the law of Athens, this would be one of Socrates arguments of why he would not escape his

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:

On a more ethical level, Crito presents two reasons for why Socrates should escape prison. Crito thinks that it is not just for Socrates to give up his life when he can save it. If he stayed, he would be aiding his enemies in wronging him unjustly, and would thus be acting unjustly himself. Secondly, accepting death means that Socrates is showing no concerns for his family’s fate, and by escaping, he could live in exile and raise and educate his sons. Those reasons are what made Crito believe that Socrates should not give up his life and should escape and live in

Even though Crito knows that Socrates does not like making decisions like these, he makes a good argument to persuade him to break out. Crito believes that his friend is just giving up, not seeing what the future could hold if he did escape. He even tells him that Thrace will welcome him in and there are people there willing to help him. Crito tells Socrates that he can use his money at will and if he didn’t want to use his money, he could use his friends. Because of Crito’s wealth, it would be easy for Socrates to escape and have a good life after he would escape. Crito thinks that Socrates isn’t thinking straight because he is so devastated that he was put in prison. The “laws of Athens” says that you should stay in jail because____________. Socrates declines his plan to get out because he thinks it is just to stay in jail and suffer the punishments for his controversial crime that put him in

     Also, Socrates refuses to allow the trite motive of retaliation dictate his behavior, since he believes that revenge is immoral. He goes on to ask Crito what good would a society be with laws if anyone could simply ignore them when the outcome does not suit them. Instead, he attests that logical argument and persuasion should be the defense of the accused. And, furthermore, since he is unable to convince those who ruled against him, he believes he has no alternative but to obey their sentence. Otherwise, although escape would be easy, it would only corrupt an already corrupt system further. In the end, Socrates manages to convince Crito that escape would not be right or just, and Crito agrees.

There are times in every mans life where our actions and beliefs collide—these collisions are known as contradictions. There are endless instances in which we are so determined to make a point that we resort to using absurd overstatements, demeaning language, and false accusations in our arguments. This tendency to contradict ourselves often questions our character and morals. Similarly, in The Trial of Socrates (Plato’s Apology), Meletus’ fallacies in reason and his eventual mistake of contradicting himself will clear the accusations placed on Socrates. In this paper, I will argue that Socrates is not guilty of corrupting the youth with the idea of not believing in the Gods but of teaching the youth to think for

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.

Each one of us has been accused of some kind of act at some point in our lives. Yet those accusations have been terribly mistaken and sometimes there is so little that a person can do to fix that. In this case we are talking about the wonderful philosophist Socrates, a person of many beliefs and ideas. He was a man who dearly believed in justice and doing justice to others. We will examine Socrates' way of thinking and his rationality towards a healthy and logical mind. After reading the Meno, Apology, and Crito I have come to a conclusion that Socrates made the right decision by rejecting Crito's offer of escape and the reasoning behind that will be explained by providing parts of the dialogues and the ideas

Crito is the play about the actual character Crito offering Socrates a second opportunity to living; he, however, rejects his proposal for a few reasons which he concluded were just according to the state. Introduce quote “For I am still what I always have been, a man who will listen to no voice but the voice of the reasoning which on consideration I find to be the truest…” (Crito 104) the truest being the laws of Athens. Socrates’ relationship with the political system of Athens is a critical component to his philosophy. The idea that Justice is unified and if just one law was disobeyed [than there would be no govern city] awkward. This is why the idea of escaping would ultimately lead to serious consequences; if this man, who supports the idea of Justice, was to escape from prison then the reality of the city would collapse. According to Socrates, by putting himself above the legal system, he would cause more harm to the city rather than improving it. In order to not contradict himself or the virtues of the Greeks, he accepted his penalty instead of escaping. Moreover, throughout the play Socrates is seen as a criticizing villain, but this is not the case; the philosopher actually praises the laws and only wishes to prove a point to the public. In sum, Socrates believes his conviction was unjustly decreed but does not escape due to the respect he upholds for the laws of Athens. Good points, but elaborate on Socrates’ relationship

Socrates’ adherence to the law causes him to refuse Crito’s offer to help him out of prison. As a citizen of Athens, the duty to oblige with the contractual agreement is a must. Contractual relationship has been established between Socrates and the state as he has benefited all the goods such as education and protection of the laws however when failure to comply, consequences such as execution must be faced. For Socrates, escaping is an unjust act and for which if he did act upon it, would lead to more consequences. For instance, Crito would be involved in an unjust act and in acceptance to his punishment, he made sure to explain why he must remain in prison. One argument made is that if he did escape then the system would be destroyed. A destroyed

Crito presents three contentions for why Socrates ought to get away. The initial two are genuinely frail. The third, concerning Socrates' obligation to his children is the strongest. Crito's first contention is that if Socrates does not get away, then he will hurt Crito in two ways. From one viewpoint Crito will lose a decent companion when Socrates dies in jail, and on the other, Crito's reputation will be harmed. People of Athens won't realize that Socrates stayed in prison. They'll assume that Crito refused to get Socrates out because he wasn't willing to spend the cash. Subsequently Crito will get a reputation for caring more for the money than his friend. In this argument Crito is accepting that it is an awful thing a man to accomplish

Socrates is known in today’s world as one of the greatest philosophers in history. Born in 469 BC just outside of Athens, Socrates was properly brought up and thoroughly educated, he developed both physical and mental strengths. Socrates spent time with the philosopher Archelaus, where he studied astronomy, mathematics, and was introduced to philosophy. Archelaus taught with a scientific approach. Socrates turned from this approach and created his own. He decided instead of trying to understand the universe, he would try to understand himself. Socrates spent many days in the Athens marketplace where he became skilled in the art of arguing.

In the Crito, Socrates is nearing his appointed death and his friend Crito is attempting to convince him to escape. The guard has been payed off and Socrates only must walk out the door and flee Athens. Socrates quickly tells Crito that he cannot escape, because that would be breaking the laws of Athens. Socrates main reason to care about the laws of Athens is to keep a just soul, because breaking the laws would be unjust and acting unjustly would harm his soul. This is what Socrates truly cares about, whether he is harming his soul by being unjust or living just with his soul intact. He would rather die than to