Socrates Parent-Child Argument Essay

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Socrates was a famous Athenian philosopher who was sentenced to death for the charges of corruption of the youth and impiety, or the act of not worshipping Athenian gods. In Plato’s dialogue, The Crito, Socrates argues to Crito his reasoning to stay in prison. Socrates gives three major explanations why he should not escape; the first being that if he escapes he it would be unjust to the state, the second being that people must always keep their promise, and lastly we must obey or respect our parents and teachers. The purpose of this essay is to show that Socrates’ arguments are flawed. In Socrates’ view, one must always keep promises, and if he were to escape, he would break a promise that he made to the state, and therefore he must remain …show more content…

His argument for always keeping promises does not apply if one also breaks their promise as well. His parent-child comparison to the state also is flawed, since it completely disregards the possibility of the state being wrong. Socrates’ parent-child argument also implies that one must unquestionably follow the state, and as a result discards citizen rights. Since Athens has a democratic government that protects rights of citizens, the parent-child argument could not be applied to Athens because it implies citizens do not have rights. The parent-child argument could only be applied to an authoritarian government since one must obediently follow the government, at the cost of citizen’s rights. The state was wrong for imprisoning Socrates and executing him for corruption of youth and impiety, and the laws itself was unjust, since there was no exact way of knowing that anyone “corrupted the youth” or one “commits impiety by not worshipping Athenian Gods”, and Socrates is a prime example since he was an innocent man sent to be executed. I also believe that Socrates could done much more by trying to get rid of the laws. He believed living justly was the highest value, but did not consider those in the future that could be executed by these unfair laws. If he did escape, he could of lived a more justly life he if successfully abolished the unjust laws from the

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