Socrates Escape From Prison example essay topic

In Crito, Plato recounts the last days of Socrates, immediately before his execution was to take place in Athens. In the dialogue, Socrates' pupil, Crito, proposes that Socrates escape from prison. Socrates considers this proposal, trying to decide whether escaping would be "just" and "morally justified". Eventually, Socrates concludes that the act is considered "unjust" and "morally unjustified". Socrates then decides to accept his fate and proceeded with his execution. Socrates was a man who was in pursuit of the truth (Durant).

In his refusal to accept exile from Athens or a commitment of silence as a penalty, he chooses 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 (Wolff 37).

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 (Wolff 40). In the arguments that Socrates makes, he emphasizes that 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" (Wolff 43).

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 (Wolff 45). 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 (Durant) 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 at the cost of his own life.

One of the main arguments made by Socrates, "Think not of life and children 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 (Wolff 45), is one of the most important and crucial statements 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 or true, and he will be contradicting his own teachings. 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" (Wolff 47). 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's tate ment 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, it's like not obeying his parents that raised him.

Socrates was a man who stuck to 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. 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 his act saved the morality and truth of Athens.

Bibliography

Wolff, Robert Paul. "Ten Great Works of Philosophy". New York: Penguin Group, 1969.
Durant, William. "The Story of Philosophy". New York: Washington Square Press Publications, 1961.
Volume I, Ninth Edition. "Civilization: Past & Present". New York: Addison-Wesley Longman, Inc., 2000.