The main theme presented throughout the text is obedience to the law as we see

Socrates and Crito arguing over the topics of justice, injustice, and the law. All in

all, the type of philosophy Plato presents in this text is ethical or moral philosophy.

To describe moral philosophy, it came into existence with the idea of developing

moral theories that would help create a foundation of sorts to help guide people in

determining what was right and wrong. It is a guideline intended to provide people

with an action-guidance to feed their moral thinking (Christensen, 2021) or in other

words, to feed them the very understanding of ethics – what is right and wrong.

The dialogue between Socrates and Crito here involves Socrates try and show

Crito why he should or should not accept Crito’s help and flee the prison he’s

locked in. They essentially discuss if it would be right or wrong of him to do so – a

question of morals.

This dialogue starts with Crito sharing his concern over how “people will talk” if

he or Socrates’ other friends/followers let Socrates die, and that the public opinion

will bring harm to their reputation and image in society. This part of the text then

takes us into account opinions. Socrates to this, says that, “one should not regard

all the opinions that people hold, but only some and not others” (Plato. (n.d). The

Crito. http://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil100/05.%20Crito.pdf ),

meaning that some opinions are right, and some wrong. And in the end, it all boils

down regarding with the correct opinion. According to him, although the opinion
of the many justifies him breaking out of prison is the right thing to do on both his

and Crito’s part, is it truly, right? Moreover, Socrates’ emphasis on believing and

relying on experts on the said subject/scenario says that just because the majority

without complete/real knowledge has an opinion, does not mean that is indeed

right (Whetstone, 2018). And his way of this reaching this conclusion is through

deliberate logic and reasoning, an approach continually adopted by him as seen in

works of various other thinkers, including Plato.

Plato also touches upon legal philosophy, when he writes about Socrates trying to

reason why him breaking out of prison would be wrong, or what it could mean for

him, his followers and his very existence as a philosopher. Socrates’s argument

over the state’s authority essentially builds on the idea that that the country/state or

the law owns its citizens. He states that when an individual has a choice to leave a

state’s rule and they choose not to, it gives the state the right to every aspect of

their life. He writes how the state exercises an absolute authority and, therefore,

shall never be questioned. The lines, “Are you so wise as to have forgotten that

compared with your mother and father and all the rest of your ancestors your

country is something far more precious, more venerable, more sacred and held in

greater honor both among gods and among all reasonable men?”; “if you cannot

persuade your country, you must do whatever it orders and patiently submit to any

punishment that it imposes, whether it be flogging or imprisonment.”, (Plato. (n.d).

The Crito. http://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil100/05.%20Crito.pdf )

highlight the state’s control over its citizens and its own understanding of legal

morality (Hatzistavrou, 2019) – punishing behavior and beliefs that they regard to

be wrong. It's interesting to note that this aspect of governance – its absolute

authority and ‘persuade and obey’ philosophy (Hatzistavrou, 2019) – was itself

never questioned on moral terms throughout the text; whether it is right or wrong.

Socrates’s line of argument and reasoning suggests that it's something that is

simply accepted as the reality of the times.

Plato essentially agrees with Socrates’ principal view on goodness as well as

systematic logic and reasoning. Regardless of this, both these men did have

different priorities and philosophies they gave considerable importance to

throughout their lives. In principle, the two men did have a difference of opinion.

For example, the idea of freedom. Socrates was a prominent advocate for

democracy and gave great importance to individual freedom (Cairns, 2019). Plato,

on the other, was essentially against democratic governance, and rather believed in

a more communal system with radical inequality in the economic domain in order

to separate wealth and power. His view was that Athenian democracy had no

internal unity as men had excessive freedom (Santas, 2018).

Taking this point of their belief in the Athenian democracy, we can see that

Socrates stood by his individual freedom – his beliefs and values he had over the

years come to adopt – and his belief in democracy even when the very

government/system held him criminal for raising political-philosophic questions

and encouraging youngsters to do the same. Although he did criticize and question

those in power, his belief in the idea of democracy was still intact (Cairns, 2019).

Bringing back Socrates’ and Crito’s discussion on ‘opinions’, it can be also said

that accepting the authority of a state run by several individuals can also in a way

mean accepting what “most people have to say”. As Cairns (2019) states, Socrates’

trial shows how the idea of democracy can also be swayed and turned into a mob

decree.

Strictly based on the principal views discussed and compared in this essay/paper, it

is difficult to say whether I completely agree or disagree with Plato’s philosophy as

a whole. There are some aspects that I disagree with like his overall take on

democracy and an ideal society. However, there are ideas that I do agree with

relating to his philosophy in general – ideas that are not expressed in this particular

text – like the idea behind our sense and understanding of reality as well as the

need to have a healthy harmony between one’s soul and emotional responses

(Sedley, 2016).
References

Christensen, A. M. S. (2021). Moral Philosophy and Moral Life. Oxford

University Press, USA.

Plato. (n.d). The Crito.

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil100/05.%20Crito.pdf

Whetstone, O. C. (2018). The Squeaky Voice of the Laws: A Paradox of

Democracy in Plato’s Crito (Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University Cambridge,

Massachusetts).

Hatzistavrou, A. (2019). The Authority of Law in Plato’s Crito. Canadian Journal

of Law & Jurisprudence, 32(2), 365-387.

Santas, G. (2018). Plato on Inequalities, Justice, and Democracy. In Democracy,

Justice, and Equality in Ancient Greece (pp. 161-177). Springer, Cham.

Cairns, H. (2019). Legal philosophy from Plato to Hegel. JHU Press.

Sedley, D. (2016). Philosophy, the Forms, and the Art of Ruling.