Socrates’ Views On Justice In The Crito
In the Crito, Socrates comes to find himself in some trouble. He is in his prison cell waiting for his execution, he has been charged with corrupting the youth, and questioning the gods. Crito who is a good friend of Socrates comes to visit him and tells him about an elaborate plan to help him escape. Socrates refuses to leave, he rather takes his punishment with dignity than run away. When Crito tries to convince Socrates of leaving he tells him why he feels like he should stay. During his conversation with Crito, Socrates tells him what is going on in his head, what he is hearing in his ears. At this point Socrates starts to personify the laws, he makes them seem like they are really having a conversation with him. While he is conversing with the laws, the laws ask him what is he about, the laws are questioning his character and conscience. They want to know if he is going to run from them, but by him doing this in a sense it’s like he is running from himself.
The laws represent virtue and justice, which is what Socrates preaches about and stands for but if he were to try and flee the laws he would be going against himself, running away from his true character. The laws then ask Socrates, why he felt that he had the right to break the law, they then compare themselves to his mother and father. The laws are demanding respect like if they were your parents, they brag about what they have done for him and what they have given him. Like a parent would say they question his actions, saying how could you repay us like this after all we have done for you. Laws in a sense are what helped create and form him, you should obey the law like you would obey your parents. In the text the laws state “In the first place did we not bring you into existence? Your father married your mother by our aid and begat you. . . Well, then, since you were brought into the world and nurtured and educated by us, can you deny in the first place that you are our child and slave, as your fathers were before you?”
The laws are declaring that they have control over your life, and you should not question them even if they were to question you. They have the right to destroy you, but you do not have the right to destroy them. This is what Socrates was doing in the apology when he was questioning the figures of authority such as the judge. His philosophical thinking in a way attempted to destroy the laws because he was questioning them in the apology, but in the Crito he is more remorseful for his actions. This is what the laws wanted, they want you to take your punishment in silence, and not question them even if it would lead to you being executed. Socrates feels like the most noble thing to do is to accept his punishment, although it is extreme. If he were to try and escape, then not only he will be punished but so will his friends, in the text it says “they will be driven into exile and deprived of citizenship, or will lose their property”. He does not want his friends to go through that so he decides to just accept the punishment, he would look like a coward if he left and he will never truly be free of his actions because everywhere he goes they will know that he is a man that disobeys the laws.
Socrates questions if it is even worth living without having virtues, going against your beliefs just to live a little longer is not worth it because the remainder of your life will not be of virtue or respectable. Socrates then makes the laws bring up the idea of a social agreement that citizens of Athens must abide by, it is an unwritten agreement. In the text it states, “Whereas you, above all other Athenians, seemed to be so fond of the State, or, in other words, of us her laws (for who would like a State that has no laws?), that you never stirred out of her: the halt, the blind, the maimed, were not more stationary in her than you were. And now you run away and forsake your agreements. Not so, Socrates, if you will take our advice; do not make yourself ridiculous by escaping out of the city. ” This quote is displaying Socrates ideas of the social agreement that one makes when they are a citizen of not only Athens but any city. As a citizen of Athens, you have an unwritten social agreement to follow the laws and regulations of that cities government. Breaking the law, not only makes you a bad citizen because you are breaking the social agreement, but in a sense you are biting the hand that feeds you. It is the laws and society that helped raise you by educating you, nurturing you, helping your parents get married, and basically helped you come to existence. For one to go against what has helped them in so many ways is a slap in the face to the social agreement, not only to Athens, but to any city he would go to, this is true even if Socrates were to go to Lacedaemon or Crete. No matter where you are at, you have to follow that places social agreement as a citizen of that city.
In conclusion, at the end of the text Socrates states, “justice first, that you may be justified before the princes of the world below. For neither will you nor any that belong to you be happier or holier or juster in this life, or happier in another, if you do as Crito bids. Now you depart in innocence, a sufferer and not a doer of evil; a victim, not of the laws, but of men. But if you go forth, returning evil for evil, and injury for injury, breaking the covenants and agreements which you have made with us, and wronging those whom you ought least to wrong, that is to say, yourself, your friends, your country, and us, we shall be angry with you while you live, and our brethren, the laws in the world below, will receive you as an enemy; for they will know that you have done your best to destroy us. ” Socrates is saying that you should put justice and the good first while you are alive, so that you can live a noble and just life so that when you die you can be justified by the princes of the world in the afterlife. He must do what is right while he is living so that he and those who belong to him can live a happy and holier life in this life and the next. He says you should depart in innocence so that you will not be known as a doer of evil. The laws were proposing that they are in control and without them society would be chaos, so thus we must follow, and do the noble thing which would be to accept whatever punishment you are given if you are to disobey the laws.
