The Crito

Recall from the Apology that Socrates was convicted and sentenced to death. He's now in prison on death row. Socrates's friend Crito shows up and tries to persuade Socrates to let his friends break Socrates out of prison. Socrates isn't having it.

Crito's Reasons

Crito gives four reasons for Socrates to break out:

  1. Crito and his friends are going to look like cheapskates jerks if they don't break Socrates out. Why? Everyone knows that all they have to do is bribe the guards, and Socrates's friends are wealthy. So if they don't break him out, it must be because they value money more than their friends. (Think of us, your friends, Socrates)

  2. Obviously, the court was wrong: Socrates didn't commit any crimes. SO Socrates shouldn't obey the court's decision. (Innocent men shouldn't be executed.)

  3. Socrates's children will have to be raised without a father, and with the dishonor of having a convicted criminal for a father. (Think of your children)

  4. Death is a bad thing that you should avoid at all costs.

Socrates's Four Responses

  1. We've agreed [Socrates and Crito] many times that it's the opinions of the experts that matters, not the opinions of "the masses." We shouldn't listen to the opinions of the mass of Athenians, but decide what to do based on what seems best.
    • Worry: The masses can hurt Crito and his friends if they think badly of them.
    • Socrates's response to this worry: No, they can't really hurt you. They might kill you or take your money or whatever, but if you do what's right, they can't hurt your soul and that's what matters.
    • Crito is persuaded (sort of) by Socrates's response to his first point.

    2. Sidenote on Relativism

    Apparently, Socrates thinks that relativism is false, or the above response wouldn't make sense. What's relativism? Relativism = what's true is just what people think is just what people believe

    You can be a relativist about different things -- you could think that relativism is right about morals, but wrong about physics.

    Absolutism = the truth isn't determined by what people believe, but by the world

    Here are some reasons for thinking that relativism is not true:

    1. Why is relativism true of morals, but not physics?
      • Here's a law of physics: e=mc^2
      • Here's a law of morals: torturing babies is wrong
      If you think relativism is true, you have explain why the one sort of law is absolute and the other relative.
    2. It looks like it's possible for us to really disagree about what's right. But if relativism, there are no real moral disagreements. Disagreeing about what's good or bad is like disagreeing about whether chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla. (according to the relativist). That seems incorrect.
    3. Suppose you thought that morality concerns making people happy. Suppose it turns out (maybe as a matter of psychology) that what makes people happy is constant across different people. Then it turns out that morality is objective.
    4. Here is an obvious fact: what the Nazis did in Germany was wrong. But according to relativism, it was right. So relativism must be wrong.

      5. End Sidenote on Relativism

  2. Socrates's response to Crito's second argument: Socrates on civil disobedience. Hold on to this thought.
  3. Response to Socrates's children being raised without a father. His children are better being raised without a father than by being raised by a father who was to cowardly to do what was right. His children will live a shameful life and have no positive role model if they're dad is corrupt in this way.
  4. Response to the "death is bad" argument. Socrates says that we have no idea what will happen in death. Could be good, could be bad, might not be like anything. 2 out of 3 don't seem like a big deal. But, breaking out prison is definitely bad. So it's wises to pick not breaking out of prison (might turn out pretty good).