Crito Essay Research Paper SocratesSocrates has thoroughly

Crito Essay, Research Paper

SocratesSocrates has thoroughly justified his own decision to obey the opinions of the majority andserve out the sentence that his own city has deemed appropriate for his crimes. At the beginningof this piece, Socrates has presented a period of questions and answers through dialogue withCrito. Throughout the dialogue Socrates is explaining his reasoning for not running from thegovernment. Crito does not understand the madness of Socrates, Crito will do whatever it takesto help his friend to flee, instead of being exiled by the government. AI do not think that whatyou are doing is right, to give up your life when you can save it, and to hasten your fate as yourenemies would hasten it, and indeed have hastened it in their wish to destroy you.@(Crito p.58c) Throughout the begining of the dialog, Crito is expressing his feelings of why he believesSocrates should flee from the city. Crito makes many valid points on why he disagrees withSocrates decision to bare this misfortune. Crito offers to do on not fleeingbeing majorintsexpressing to Socrates, that a man as courageous as Socrates and who has lived his life throughvirtue . AYou seem to me to choose the easiest path, whereas one should choose the path a goodand courageous man would choose, particularly when one claims throughout one=s life to carefor virtue.@(Crito p.59d) Through the dialogue the questions and answers within Socrates andCrito establish to major themes in which hold true throughout the work. The first being that aperson must decide whether the society in which one lives has a just reasoning behind it=s ownstandards of right and wrong. The second being, that a person must have pride in the life that heor she leads. In establishing basic questions of these two concepts, Socrates has precluded hisown circumstance and attempted to prove to his companion Crito, that the choice that he hasmade is just. AI am the kind of man who listens only to the argument that on reflection seems bestto me. I cannot, now that this fate has come upon me, discard the arguments I used; they seen tome much the same.@(Crito p.59b) The introduction of this work has also provided the conceptthat it is our society or majority that has dictated what is considered virtuous action. According toSocrates we have been given every opportunity to reject our society and renounce what it hasstood for and against. ANot one of our laws raises any obstacle or forbids him, if he is notsatisfied with us or the city, if one of you wants to go and live in a colony or wants to goanywhere else, and keep his property.@ (Crito p.63d) Socrates states; that making a consciouschoice or effort to remain under the influence of a society is an unconscious agreement with thatsociety to live your life by it=s standards and virtues. Socrates states after establishing his own agreement with his city=s virtues that hebelieves in the validity of the decision imposed upon himself. He states that his decision isjustified by the fact that the laws and governing agents of the society must command a certaindegree of respect. Any person who would unjustly disobey these laws creates a deliberate attemptto destroy them, as well as, the society which has imposed them. For example; AHowever, thatwhoever of you remains when he sees how we conduct our trials and manage the city in otherways, has in fact come to an agreement with us to obey our instructions.@ (Crito p.63e) If thedecisions of the city=s governing agents are not thoroughly respected as just and cohesive partsof society, the very structure by which the society stands is subject to collapse. If a person isfound to be in violation of what his or her society stands for and does not accept theconsequences for his or her actions, then there can not be a system of law in place to create order.A You must either persuade it or obey its orders, and endure in silence whatever it instructs youto endure, whether blows or bonds, and if it leads you into war or be wounded or killed you mustobey.@(Crito p.63b) The society in which a person lives creates a mutual relationship in whichevery person in that society is indebted to, if he or she willingly accepts that society for their own. Following along these basic concepts, Socrates then adapts them to his own circumstancesCrito, his companion , has presented to Socrates . The option to escape from his captors andrenounce their decision on his fate. Socrates view in Crito=s suggestion to escape is one inwhich Crito begins to understand. Socrates suggests. AI mean the majority of men. For us,however, since our argument leads to this, the only valid consideration is whether we should beacting rightly in giving with the escape, or whether in truth we shall do wrong in doing all this.@(Crito p.61c) Socrates has concluded that if he were to follow Crito=s advice he would becommitting several wrong actions against a society in which he calls his own. The first of thesebeing his own forebears. To disobey your own society, according to Socrates, is to betray what you were taught to

be right by the virtues of your own parents. And what they held to be true, your fore fathersbrought you into a society that they believed to be profound and just. AIs your wisdom such asnot to realize that your country is to be honored more then your mother, your father, and all yourancestors, that is more to be revered and more sacred, and that it counts for more among the godsand sensible