Difficult Decisions Of Socrates In Plato's Crito

Difficult decisions come around in everyone’s life. These decisions may be important and could even be considered life and death situations. A dilemma of this kind was depicted in the dialogue of Crito, written by Plato. A philosopher, named Socrates, was confronted with a big decision of whether or not to escape jail, after being sentenced to be executed. However, Socrates did not ponder long to make his decision, and provided many arguments which backed up the ideas he had, in his conversation with Crito. The injury and injustice Socrates would cause by escaping from prison prior to his execution, I think was the most convincing argument. Socrates believed any kind of revenge was unjust; he would be considered a hypocrite, and the laws of Athens would no longer be taken seriously.

Who, was also in pursuit of truth. A few, one of them being Meletus, disagreed he was a good citizen. Socrates was persecuted and accused of corrupting the youth, and of impiety. He was then sent to prison to await his execution. Crito, his friend, went the day after to visit and admired how unflustered Socrates seemed to be under the unfortunate circumstances. Crito then explains his plans on how he could escape prison, and presents many arguments to try to persuade Socrates on why he should flee. One of Crito’s thoughts regarding this matter was that Socrates' death would reflect negatively on him and his friends, because people could think they did nothing to try to save him. Socrates then conveys to Crito that other’s opinion should not matter. However, Socrates expressed he would go with Crito, if it is just, but if it is unjust he must stay in prison and face