Based on paper Essay

Crito is considered to be an important and instructive work of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato in the form of a dialogue. This dialogue is a conversation between Socrates and his friend Crito concerning justice and injustice, as well as the appropriate response to that injustice.
Thus, this paper introduces the information on the dialogue between Socrates and his old friend Crito, it evaluates Crito’s arguments against Socrates’s ones, and argues that Socrates has stronger arguments in comparison with Crito.
To start with, the dialogue takes place in prison where Crito presents his major arguments for why Socrates has to escape from jail. The first argument is that if Socrates does not run away from prison, then his decision will cause harm to Crito in different ways. Firstly, Crito will lose his wealthy friend if Socrates dies. Secondly, Crito’s reputation and name will be tarnished. Not knowing that Socrates chose to stay in prison, people will think that Crito did not help him because he did not want to spend the money and rescue Socrates from jail. Crito tries to understand why Socrates does not want to run away from prison in his second argument. He thinks that Socrates worries about his friends who could be punished for helping him run away. But his fears are groundless because they are willing to take risks and help him. Moreover, in favor of escaping Crito argues that Socrates like a father has paternal responsibilities to help his family, bring up his children and avoid orphaning them.
In turn, Socrates presents his arguments and provides his points of view. He says that escaping is not a just action and it would cause harm to his soul. In addition, Socrates thinks of the city of Athens and what consequences of his escaping would be for this city. Socrates admits that Crito pays a lot of attention to the opinion of the majority and many of his arguments touches upon people’s views. For instance, what will people think if he does not assist Socrates in escaping from prison? What will people consider if Socrates does not help his family and educate his children? Socrates emphasizes that the expert opinion is more essential and significant than the majority opinion. In Socrates’s opinion if people listen to the majority rather than the expert opinion they could hurt or cause harm to their souls. Socrates states that one of the most fundamental principles is to live well and always think of justice. That is why he thinks it is immorally to bribe guards and run away. Furthermore, Socrates argues that the city and the laws will be destructed if he escapes from prison. Socrates thinks that if people harm others it will hurt their souls. Doing illegal and unjust actions or things destroys people’s characters. In addition to the above-mentioned information, it is possible to add that Crito and Socrates were old and wealthy friends and they saw the importance of friendship.
Taking the above-stated information into consideration, it is possible to draw a conclusion that Crito’s arguments are very narrow. He is anxious about his reputation and worries about public opinion whereas Socrates is concerned about his soul (justice). Socrates’s argument regarding his consensus with the state to comply the requirements of the law is a persuasive one. Thus, Socrates’s decision to stay in jail is a right one.