Plato’s Crito

Abstract

The Crito belongs to Plato’s early dialogues. It presents a discussion between Socrates and a long-term associate of Socrates, Crito, that takes place while Socrates is in prison awaiting his execution. Crito tries to convince Socrates to escape from prison. Socrates refuses, arguing that doing so would be unjust. The dialogue may be divided into two parts. The first part (43a1-50a5) contains Crito’s arguments in favor of Socrates’ escape and Socrates’ initial rebuttal of those arguments, based on principles that were agreed in previous discussions between Socrates and Crito. The second part (50a6-54e2) contains a new set of arguments against escape that are presented in the form of an imaginary speech of the personified laws of Athens (usually referred to as “the speech of the Laws”). The bulk of scholarly literature on the Crito focuses broadly on three topics. The first concerns the dialectic of the Crito. The second concerns the consistency between the Crito and the Apology. The main issue is that the speech of the Laws appears to make strong authoritarian claims which are not straightforwardly compatible with either Socrates’ arguments in the first part of the dialogue or the Apology. The third concerns the proper interpretation of central elements of the speech of the Laws and their relevance to contemporary debates about political obligation, the authority of law, and civil disobedience. Those elements include the option that the Laws offer to the citizens to either persuade or obey them and the arguments in favor of the citizens’ subordination to the Laws based on gratitude and the citizens’ agreement. Other topics that have received significant scholarly attention include Socrates’ rejection of retaliation in the first part of the Crito and the place of the Crito in Socrates’ political philosophy. Recently there is also growing scholarly interest in the relevance of Socrates’ general views on filial obligations to the speech of the Laws in the Crito.