Socrates’ position towards the authorities was inconsistent in The Euthyphro and The Crito. He questioned the authority in The Euthyphro but defended and obeyed it in The Crito.
In The Euthyphro, Socrates had a dialog with Euthyphro who claimed to be an expert on the subjects such as holiness, Gods, piety, justice, etc. Socrates began his philosophical debate by asking Euthyphro to define piety and impiety. Not completely satisfied by Euthyphro’s definition that, “Piety, then, is that which is dear to the gods”, Socrates pointed out that gods were known to disagree and argue; therefore, they may not have had unified opinion on what is holy. To further frustrate Euthyphro, Socrates continued his argument by asking the following question, “Holy is beloved by the gods because it’s
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By questioning holiness, gods, piety, impiety and justice, Socrates questioned the authority, the choices it made, and the principals it followed.
Unlike in The Euthyphro, in The Crito, Socrates defended the law and authorities. The debate took place in jail where Socrates was waiting for his execution. Crito, his friend, came to visit and tried to persuade Socrates to escape. However, instead of planning the escape Socrates started the dialog about why he would rather obey the law and be executed. At first, Crito presented two arguments to
In Euthyphro, Plato writes about a conversation between Socrates and Euthyphro while outside the coliseum. Socrates is trying to define, “What is piety?” as it is important for Socrates to understand, since one of the charges that Meletus claims is Socrates, is impious. Euthyphro claims to be an expert in what is pious and he is going to be charging his own father with murder. Four different attempts between Euthyphro and Socrates were made to define piety.
In this paper I will discuss and evaluate the definitions of piety in Plato’s Euthyphro. Plato wrote this dialogue shortly after Socrates death. The Euthyphro is one of Plato’s early philosophy dialogs in which it talks about Socrates and Euthyphro’s conversations dealing with the definitions of piety and gods opinion. This dialogue begins when Socrates runs into Euthyphro outside the authorities and the courts. Socrates is there because he has been charged with impiety, and Euthyphro is there to accuse his father for the death of a man named Meletus who was a farm hard.
The primary philosophical issue that Socrates and Euthyphro are in disagreement about is what is holy and what is unholy? Socrates stands about piety that one should not even do in the response to the offence done by another; and it is inappropriate not to obey the government. On the other hand, Euthyphro thinks that it is unholy not to prosecute a wrongdoer whether he is relative or not (Cahn and Markie 105). According to the Plato's Euthyphro, its logical mistakes are assuming that piety is defined by the act of persecuting an unjust person who has murdered or committed sacrilege or any other related crime.
It would be wrong to refute the statement that the god loves the god loved acts because they are god loved. Therefore, Euthyphro must not deny the claim, but rather challenge the relevance the claim has on testing the definition of pious acts
Socrates asks Euthyphro “is the holy, holy because it is loved by the gods?” or “is something loved by the gods because it is holy?” Euthyphro was charging his father with murder. Not that he physically put his hands on one, but while another was awaiting the decision, his father left the man to die of starvation and lack of water. In Euthyphro’s eyes, his father was the murder of this man. The reason he is prosecuting his father is because he believes in the Gods and that no matter if someone is of kin if it is not right then it just isn’t right.
Crito accepts his arguments and Socrates decides he is going to
Crito presents Socrates with five arguments in an effort to persuade him into escaping from prison. At first Crito attempts to convince Socrates by assuring him that “my money is available to you, and
It is often for one to urge the survival of another, whether it be of their own interest or the betterment of the other. Shortly before his execution by the Athenian senate, Socrates was approached by lifelong friend Crito who urged him to escape into exile than suffer execution. Plato transcribed the dialogue between the two men; Socrates describing his lifelong duty to uphold the social contract and Crito stressing the importance of morality above all else. Despite history recording Socrates staying and executed, his reasons for doing so, despite Crito’s urging, stands in the right.
It became clearer for Socrates when Euthyphro replied “What is dear to God is pious, what is not is impious.” It was showing that for Euthyphro piousness is related to the
The Social Contract Plato’s Crito depicts a conversation between Socrates and Crito. Socrates’ friends intend to help him escape from prison before he is executed. Their conversation touches upon subjects like justice, injustice and the appropriate response to injustice. Socrates argues that one must not answer to injustice with more injustice as that would be an injury to the laws and to the city of Athens.
Crito tries to convince him to flee by mentioning the sense of loneliness, the injustice he would cause on his children’s lives, the shame of cowardice his friends would bear and how he would be allowing his enemies to destroy him. Socrates and Crito continue to disagree when it comes to the dilemma of escaping or remaining in the prison cell. As the two friends continue to argue, Crito agrees that Socrates was right to preserve his ideal that only the opinions or some men should be regarded and not the opinions of most men. Socrates tells Crito that he will only be persuaded by what is just and reasonable. He chose to abide to the principles of Athens made by men whose opinions are valued and in retrospect he was also sentenced to death by men whose opinions are valued.
(Crito,45d). Crito believes you should not have kids or stay with them to the end, raising them and educating them. Crito believes that the trial was unfair and should have never happened so with that said not doing anything to save Socrates or Socrates not saving himself is cowardly and unmanly. Socrates Counter-Arguments The first of Socrates counter arguments is about the opinions of men and whether you should listen to some peoples opinions, but not to others.
To be just or to be served an injustice and obey, this is the very basis of the philosophical dialogue between Socrates and Crito. The Crito begins as one of Socrates’ wealthy friends, Crito, offers Socrates a path to freedom—to escape from Athens. Through the ensuing dialogue, Socrates examines, as a man who is bound by principles of justice, whether an unjust verdict should be responded to with injustice. In the dialogue between Socrates and Crito, Socrates outlines his main arguments and principles that prevent him from escaping under such circumstances. Socrates is under guard when Crito visits him, thus the plan to escape.
I have come to the conclusion that it was wrong for Socrates to obey authority in this case. He should have escaped with Crito in order to save his life. Crito’s reasons for escape were very compelling; he mentioned how Socrates had his family to think of and that he
Understanding “Crito” I. Introduction Crito was one of the important five dialogues of Plato about his teacher/character Socrates who underwent trial and death. In this work entitled Crito, Socrates refused the proposal of Crito that escaping into exile than drinking the hemlock would be of better option. This means that the discussion will be on the Socrates as expounded on Crito rather than the historical Socrates. II.