Socrates Good Friend example essay topic

Crito By Plato Plato's Crito takes place after Socrates is condemned to death and sitting in his jail cell. Crito is Socrates' good friend and has come to visit Socrates in the hopes of convincing his old friend to escape. But Socrates logically refutes Crito's argument. Crito begins his argument by bringing bad news to Socrates, relating to him that the ship from Delos is approaching and, with it, the hour of his mandated death.

Socrates seems resigned to his fated death, but Crito attempts to persuade him to allow his friends to help him escape prison and flee Athens. Crito fears that others will begin to criticize Socrates' disciples for not rescuing their great leader. But Socrates says that, like he has said so many times before, the popular opinion of others does not concern him, only with that of the Gods does he concern himself. He advises his friend to do the same. Crito then, in response to this, says that Socrates must escape in order to ensure that their father properly educate his sons. Socrates goes on to argue that the advice of one individual, namely God, should be heeded much more than the advice of countless ignorant people, namely Athens' as a whole.

In this way, he proves to Crito that popular opinion is irrelevant. Socrates also makes the point that it is better to do right than wrong, no matter what the circumstances. He felt that, although the jurors wronged him by unjustly condemning him, it would still be wrong to violate the laws by escaping. He goes on to say that he does not believe in consciously doing wrong to others as a means of retaliation and that it would indeed undermine his whole life's work. Socrates does not blame the laws which sentenced him, but the people. He goes on to tell Crito that the law has already given him a long and successful life.

He explains that he actually owes the city much for his life. He believes that he has a contract with Athens, which would be broken, if he dodged his death. It was under the city's laws that his parents were married and he was born. Then the laws allowed him to get educated. In acknowledgement to all that the city has done for him, he must sacrifice his life as an example of obedience to the law. 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. In this story, the problem is that Socrates' accusers have unjustly sentenced him by using the Laws.

Plato gives the Laws their own voice in the hopes to distinguish them as a separate entity, making them something human to which Socrates might be able to act unjustly. However, it is somewhat questionable how far the laws of state can be separated from the people who practice them. But if both the people and the Laws have ruled that Socrates is liable for his actions, the one can deduce that either the people have sided with the Laws or that the Laws have sided with the people. And, nevertheless, it seems hard to believe that the Laws are just and must be regarded and that the people are unjust and should not be respected.

But what would a society be like without laws? Moreover, what would society be like if it had laws and its citizens simply disregarded them? Logically, anarchy would result as well as total chaos. Despite the unfortunate result of Socrates' trial, the laws are necessary and the system does work in most cases. Like many things in this world, the system is not perfect, but it is still quite necessary in order to have a civilized society. An interesting metaphor made by Socrates in this story is mainly in the beginning of the dialogue.

In an effort to better illustrate to Crito his decision to stay and be executed, Socrates compares himself to a medical patient. He says that if he was sick, he would not take the advice of his friends, who have no medical knowledge, but would instead do whatever the doctor recommended. In other words, he did not see why he should care about what the public opinions are if they had no expert knowledge of judicial or moral law. This is the kind of thinking that makes Socrates easy to relate with. He has a gift in which he takes a situation and analogizes it with every day occurrences to make it easier to make a well thought out decision. This method helps Socrates open Crito's mind to instructive discourse, which eventually proves Socrates' logic over Crito's.