Latorre, Carmelo Jay T.

LE 104

Plato’s Crito

The “Crito” is a composition dialogue made by Plato in 360 B.C.E that depicts a conversation
between Socrates and his rich friend Crito in a prison cell in Athens in the year 399 B.C.E.
The conversation revolves around the topic of justice, injustice and the appropriate or
moral response to both. By laying down his argument in relation to rational reflection
rather than an emotional response, the character of Socrates explains the implications and
justifications of a prison escape to his friend.

The dialogue starts as Socrates awakens in his prison cell in the early hours of the day while
his friend; Crito was looking over him. A few weeks earlier, Socrates had been found guilty
of a crime and was sentenced to death. He received the sentence with a calm mind without
resentment and the feeling of injustice, despite his present predicament. Crito with some of
their friends came to the prison desperately to save him. The sentence of Socrates was
delayed because Athens does not carry out executions while the annual mission it sends to
Delos is still on its voyage and has not yet returned. Taking this opportunity, Crito has come
to convince Socrates to agree with him and escape jail while there is still time.

To Socrates, escaping jail is certainly a practical course of action. His friend, Crito, among
with others, is a wealthy and respectable person in Athens; the guards, stationed to watch
his jail cell can certainly be bribed; therefore, if Socrates decides to escape and go to
another city, his prosecutor’s will not mind. This self-exile, if he decides upon it would
probably be the better option for Socrates. But he does not immediately grab the chance to
run away. With this, his friend Crito, laid out several reasons for why he should escape. He
mentioned that staying and deciding to be in prison is what his enemies, the prosecutors,
know that he will do. That Socrates will be to proud and play their game, falling to their
trap. Another is that Crito offered to bribe the jail guards because they have the means and
resources to bargain with more than enough financial capacity. He also added that their
enemies, knowing how financially capable they are, would think of them to be too cheap or
timid to arrange a plan for him to escape. He even mentioned that by dying, he is giving
what his enemies want and that he will be orphaning his children and that it is his
responsibility not to leave them fatherless.

Socrates responds by raising his arguments to Crito and should he counter it and makes him
understand, then he might consider the possibility of escaping from jail. He starts by saying,
how one acts should be decided by rational reflection, not by appeals to emotion. He is a
practical and logical person. This has always been his methodology, and he will not forego
with it just because his situation and capacity, by being in jail, have changed. He first
dismisses Crito’s anxiety about what other people will think. He explains that moral
questions should not be based on the opinion of the majority, and that what matters, are
the opinions of those who possess moral wisdom, even as a single person, that knows the
nature of virtue and justice. He even pushes aside considerations as how much escaping
would cost, or how likely the plan of escaping would succeed. He even acknowledged that
he will orphan his children and might condemn them to ill-fate upon his untimely death.
What matters to him and is the only question that he wants answered is, should he follow
Crito’s suggestion by escaping, is it morally right or morally wrong?

Crito listened intently as Socrates constructs an argument for the morality of escaping. He
starts by saying, one is never justified in doing what is morally wrong, even in self-defense
or in retaliation for an injury or injustice being suffered. He added that one should be a man
of his word and never discontinue an agreement one has made between another entity. In
this, he explains that made an implicit agreement with Athens and its laws as an entity, that
by leaving his life there for seventy long years, enjoying his life and the good things it
provided him, including culture, security, social stability, and most of all education. He also
mentions that before his present situation, he never found any fault with the laws of Athens
nor did he ever tried to change it. Instead, he chose to spend his life in Athens, raised his
children there and enjoy the protection of its laws.

Socrates concluded as he convinced Crito that escaping would, be a violation of his

agreement to the laws of Athens and it would, as a matter of fact, a much worse situation
because it would be an act threatening to destroy the authority of the laws. Socrates, states
that to try to avoid his judgment by escaping from prison, without question and prejudice,
is morally wrong.

In the dialogue, Socrates made sure that his argument is to convey that it is imperative that
a person regardless of authority and stature, exhibit a respect for the law. That the law
should be treated by its citizens similarly by how children owe their respect and obey their
parents. It also shows that if Socrates, a great moral philosopher who has spent his entire
life talking about virtue, a hypocrite and a coward by running away and hiding to another
city just so to live a few more years. The argument that whosoever benefits from the state
and its laws have a duty to respect those laws even if those same laws seems to go against
their self-interest, is still accepted today. The idea that the citizens of a state, by living ang
staying there, make an implicit agreement with the state, is the central tenet of social
contract theory. A theory stating that people live together in society in accordance to an
agreement that establishes moral and political rules of behavior. Socrates ended his
argument the same way he started it, an argument that was different from the “Opinion of
the many”. By this he also changed Crito’s own opinion of whether he should escape or not.
Socrates is who he is; a philosopher engaged in the pursuit of truth and the cultivation of
virtue. He is not going to change, regardless of what people think of him or threaten to do
to him. His whole life he exhibited integrity and he is determined to stay that way until the
very end, even if it means staying in prison and eventually, die.