plato's apology & crito - 1 plato’s apology zthe apology is the first of three dialogues...

Plato's Apology & Crito - 1

Plato’s Apology

The Apology is the first of three dialogues on trial & death of Socrates

Apology - an account of the trial Crito - the day before Socrates’

execution Phaedo - the day of the execution These three dialogues were

probably written in the 390s B.C.


Plato’s Apology

Most of the dialogue is Socrates’ long speech to the jury at his trial 1. A special kind of wisdom

• Socrates’ survey• His conclusion (21d)

– Knowing the limits of one’s genuine knowledge– Being able to distinguish between opinion and genuine

knowledge

sense of word apology


Plato’s Apology

2. The formal indictment (24 b-c)• Not the real reason that Socrates

was brought to trial• What was the real reason?

– Some debate but probably his hostility to the leaders of the government and to the democratic form of government - see 31e.


Plato’s Apology

• Some secondary factors– By their persistent questioning,

Socrates and his students annoyed many prominent Athenians

– Socrates’ refusal to lend his support to the government’s prosecution of 10 generals after the Peloponnesian War (32b). See Tarrant’s note 55 on p. 220.


Plato’s Apology

3. Socrates’ apology• The sense of the word “apology”

here Are two apologies (closely related)

• (1) Care for the soul (30b)


Plato’s Apology

• (2) The classic passage: “. . . The unexamined life is not worth living . . .” (Grube trans. 38a) [Tredennick & Tarrant: “. . . Life without this sort of examination is not worth living . . .”]

• Cf. The analogy to a fly buzzing around a lethargic horse (30e-31a)


Plato’s Apology

4. The conviction & sentencing Convicted initially by a vote of 281

to 220 & sentenced to death• Socrates is invited to propose an

alternative penalty• His response• The second vote for the death

penalty


Plato’s Apology

5. Closing comments on death • Death is one of two things:

annihilation or change; Socrates does not argue for one or the other here

• The latter is a form of immortality• In either case, it is nothing to fear


Plato’s Crito

Plato’s Crito An account of the day before Socrates’

execution 1. Socrates & Plato on the opinions of

the masses (44d)• Socrates & Plato's elitism


Plato’s Crito

2. Socrates’ reasons for refusing to escape Some secondary reasons

• fate• old age• is immoral to do wrong in

response to wrong (49b & 49d)


Plato’s Crito

The primary reason: The social contract theory• main elements

– an agreement (49e, 51e) analogy of state to parents (51b-d)– tacit– when made? (51d)– emigrate (51d)– no violence (51c)


Plato’s Crito

– What if one disagrees with the laws and rules of one’s state? (51c)

Only 2 options (51b-c, 52a) A secondary reason for refusing to

escape • A consequentialist argument (50b

& 53b)


Plato’s Crito

A critique of Socrates’ arguments in the Crito If one disagrees with the laws of one’s

state, are there only 2 options? Difficulties with the right to emigrate The scope of the contract - how does it

include non-participants? Joseph Tussman’s surrogate theory


Plato’s Crito

Critique (cont’d) What if one makes an agreement to an

evil government? Socrates tries to cover (49e). Does he succeed? The paradox Hanna Pitkin’s theory of hypothetical

consent


Plato’s Crito

Critique (cont’d) In his death, was Socrates a martyr for

free speech? Was he “the first martyr of free speech”? (I.F. Stone)

A brief history of the social contract theory after Plato

Plato’s Crito is the locus classicus Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)


Plato’s Crito

John Locke (English, 1632-1704) - Two Treatises of Government (1679-83)

Jean Jacques Rousseau (French, 1712-1778) - Du Contrat Social (1762)

Thomas Jefferson (United States, 1743-1826) - Declaration of Independence (1776)


Plato’s Crito

John Rawls (United States, b. 1921) - A Theory of Justice (1971)

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