Socrates

(469–399 BCE)

  handout d:

 

Notes on the Ethics of Socrates as reported in Plato’s CRITO:

 

  A) The principles Socrates and Crito agree to:

 

  1.  Follow the one who knows and not the many who don’t know

 i.e., follow reason, not tradition or uninformed opinion.

  

2.  Doing wrong harms the most important part of the wrongdoer, his soul.

 

  3. One ought never to return evil for evil, but always good for evil

i.e., “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

   

  B) Socrates’ arguments for Crito are:

    

1.  The laws of the State are like “parents” to Socrates.

Parents must be obeyed.

Socrates must obey the laws.

 

  2.  Socrates benefited from, and was educated by, the State and its laws.

One should never do harm to those who have benefited one.

(Socrates would do harm by disobeying the laws.)

Socrates must obey the laws.

 

              3.   Socrates entered into an implicit contract with the State

(by remaining in the State).

The State has lived up to its end of the contract.

Socrates must live up to his end of the contract by obeying the laws.

 

4.  Socrates must obey the laws (by arguments 1-3)

Escaping from prison and fleeing would be disobeying the laws.

Socrates must not escape and flee.