Crito is the shortest of Plato's
dialogues and in many ways it's the most
intimate. It is a conversation just
between two people, old friends, Socrates
and Crito,
in the prison cell as Socrates awaits
execution. His interlocutor, Crito,
is an old friend of Socrates, both
chronologically old and a friend of his
for a long time. It's important to
realize that Crito is roughly a peer of
Socrates---they're about the same age, and
Socrates is 70. Crito was also quite wealthy;
we know this... he was... it was mentioned in
the Apology that Crito was present at
Socrates' trial, and he was one of the
people who offered to put up a fairly
significant sum of money as a fine in
order to save Socrates from execution.
This dialogue centers around Crito's
escape plan. Crito comes to visit
Socrates in prison and he says, Socrates,
I've arranged for you to escape from prison--
I've bribed the guards, I've got horses waiting,
I've made arrangements for you to travel
to another city and live out the
remainder of your life. There's no risk
involved to me or to anybody else in the
plan, but it's important that we activate
this plan tonight and that you act
immediately to escape from prison
because your execution is scheduled for
tomorrow. Socrates, as we would expect,
says let's wait a minute let's talk
about this and think this out and figure
out if following this escape plan is the
right thing to do or whether we would be
doing something unjust and wrong by
escaping from prison under these
circumstances. They talk about it for the
duration of the dialogue, and in the end
Socrates refuses to escape, explaining
his reasons to Crito. He's going to go
forward and be executed a few days later
by the Athenians. Some major themes in
this dialogue include: how to make
important life decisions. Socrates
insists on being governed by reason, even
when his life is at stake.
Or he might say: *especially* when my life
is at stake, I must make certain that my
decisions are guided by reason and not
by emotion or peer pressure or a fear of
public opinion. There's also the theme of
how to live the good life. This comes up
in the middle of this dialogue. Socrates
doesn't simply want to go on living for
as long as he can;
he wants to live well, he wants to live a
good life, and what a good life means is
going to be important for his decision
about whether he can escape from prison
or not. It's important to Socrates that
we not just live but that we live
according to a certain standard of
excellence. So that's a major theme of
this dialogue, and the third major theme
is the relationship between the
individual and the government, especially
in the last half of the dialogue where
Socrates talks about his reasons for not
being able to escape from prison without
committing some kind of injustice
against the laws of Athens. So here are
some reading questions for you to think
about as you read through this short
dialogue. First, Socrates and Crito
disagree about whether they should
respect public opinion. What reasons does
each man give? And who do you think has
the better side of this argument? Second,
a crucial step in the dialogue comes
when Crito and Socrates agree that the
most important thing is not life, but
*the good life.* What do you think this means?
What is the good life like? How is it
different from simply living? Third, for
Socrates the decision about escaping
comes down to whether escaping is right
or wrong in itself, regardless of the
consequences for him personally. Is this
a good way to make decisions? Is it how
you make decisions? If you disagree with
it, what do you think are some of its
weaknesses or drawbacks? Fourth, in the
last few pages of the dialogue Socrates
imagines what the laws of Athens would
say to him if they were a person. Does he
give a good argument on behalf of the
laws? Does his view perhaps give too much
power to the government, especially to an
unjust government like the one reigning
in Athens at the time? And lastly, how are
the laws different from public opinion?
Why should we respect the laws more than
we respect public opinion, especially in
a democracy where the laws are formed by
the vote of the people? In fact, it may
seem rather odd that Socrates, who begins
by saying we should pay no attention to
public opinion, ends the dialogue by
saying, my respect for the laws is so
great that I can't escape even an unjust
verdict, and I must go willingly to
execution even though I've been perhaps
wrongly convicted. So what's the
difference between the laws and public
opinion and what
is it about the laws that requires
Socrates (and us, he thinks,) to give them
such deference and such respect? So that's
my quick overview of the themes in
Plato's Crito dialogue, along with some
reading questions for you. I look forward
to talking with you about it soon. Thanks
for watching today; goodbye.
