In the next part, Socrates brings in the voice of the Law of Athens. The Laws exist like a series circuit, if you break one, you have broken them all. When you live in Athens, you are choosing to live by a social norm and must therefore abide by the Laws that are set in place to create structure and order. One must follow the Laws otherwise they are doing the wrong thing morally. The Laws explain to Socrates why it would be wrong for him to escape and suggest persuading them into letting Socrates leave. Because Socrates is a long-standing member, he should be happy with the Laws that are in place seeing as that he has reeked the benefits of them his entire life. So, by escaping, he would be making himself an outcast because he wold be breaking the social contract that he has lived his life by. Not only will this bring misery upon him wherever he may go for the rest of his days, but he will also not be viewed favorably by the God's, which was very important at the time. This is Socrates defense to Crito, as he convinces him that it is better to face his fate that the government as set in place.
My question is this: Why would escaping prison be a bad thing if what he is there for is not fair? If he is being unjustly punished and forced to death, would the Gods not take pity on his situation? Could the public not understand why he would attempt such a thing and not be judgmental towards him, but instead accept him?
5 comments:
I wasn't shocked that Socrates decided to go along with his death and not escape. This is what Socrates does, he's different. Anyone would escape and run away to save their lives. There was this part when Socrates mentions the fact that he shouldn't do what everybody expects is the right thing to do. He explains this to Crito. Everyone would agree that Socrates should escape, but Socrates wants to do the opposite of what the people think or beleve is right. To answer your question, I believe that his decision was made based on his dream. In Socrates' dream, he was told that he would be killed on the third day. This must hava a religous symbolic meaning to it. Therefore, Socrates is going to die because he feels that it is the right thing to do for religious holy reasons.
“On the other hand, if any one of you stands his ground when he can see how we administer justice and the rest of our public organization, we hold that by doing so he has in fact undertaken to do anything that we tell him; and we maintain that anyone who disobeys is guilty of doing wrong on three separate accounts: first because we brought him into this world, and secondly because we reared him; and thirdly because, after promising obedience, he is neither obeying us nor persuading us to change our decision if we are at fault in any way; and although we set a choice before him and do not issue savage commands, giving him the choice of either persuading us or doing what we say, he is actually doing neither,” (Plato, 92).
Socrates here is arguing that since he decided to remain part of the Greek government, he make a decision to abide by their laws and regulations. If he hadn’t agreed to comply and be a citizen in the first place, then the situation would be different. Since he chose the Greek way, he chose that his life to be run by their rules. Therefore, since he was brought up and raised in their community, he is obliged to comply with their court system. If the court says he was doing wrong by “corrupting the youth,” then it is only fair for him to die as punishment because it was indeed Socrates who agreed to follow their rules. Socrates believes that the Gods are on the side of the law (or at least agree that Socrates should fill his obligations), whether it is just or not in his eyes. Since Socrates is not worried about the public, he does not care if he is accepted or not for staying in prison. The point is that most prisoners would take the chance at escaping (and thus, the general public would probably be able to relate to and be in sympathy with Socrates), but since Socrates does not care about the public, they are irrelevant and don’t matter to his argument.
To give my own perspective on your first question, I think it could be devastating to the city of Athens if even the wise Socrates disobeyed the authorities. It would encourage his students to judge the laws as they saw fit, follow whichever ones they thought were just, and break whichever ones they thought were unjust. Such disregard for authority would lead to chaos for obvious reasons.This is what it means to destroy the Laws.
I do agree that that Socrates was punished unjustly, but we need to look at his point of view. Firstly, he had a contract with the Laws, part of which includes that 'you must do whatever your city commands'(51c). Even though the verdict was unjust, it would be wrong for him to go against it. Also, as a philosopher, his greatest wish is to die and become free from his body, which impeded his attempts at achieving true, pure wisdom, and experiencing pleasure separate from pain. Thus, the punishment was really no punishment at all.
At the end, the real issue that was important to Socrates was not about what was just to himself, but what was just to the Laws.
John, good summary and question at the end.
Some questions:
1) Why do you say that breaking one law is like breaking them all? Is this how you understand the idea that to escape would be tantamount to trying to destroy Athen's laws?
2) When you break laws, is it a moral or a civil violation? This seems like something not to be confused, as the former has religious overtones.
3) Where is the part talking about a "social contract"? You are right, but this would be a good part to emphasize, since it is the greatest part of the Laws' "argument."
4) Shouldn't your final question be, given the exegesis you've done, how escape could be good, although Socrates would be breaking the social contract, etc. And is this a matter of the gods interveneing?
5) So, given your last question, it seems that Socrates is concerned with the public's opinion, contrary to his remarks to Crito earlier in the conversation?
Breaking the laws is breaking the law, no matter what the action is that is performed. When you break a law, it is both a moral and civil violation if you know what you did is wrong in your heart. If you know that the law is put in place for reasons that are just, it would be a moral violation to do otherwise. I disagree with the suggestion, however,t hat escaping jail would be a good thing. If the God's wanted to him to have a different fate, he would not find himself to be sentenced to death. I don't know if I would say that Socrates is quite concerned with the public's opinion, but i would say he wants to do what is right in the eyes of himself more then anyone and wants to accept the fate that God has given him.
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