<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Plato’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Crito </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">(approx. 399 B.C.E)</span>

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> Locked in a prison cell, Socrates, the protagonist in the dialogue, awaits his execution. If you are not familiar with ancient Greek philosophy, historically speaking, Socrates is one of the most important figures in in the context of Western philosophy.<img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-504" src="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Plato1-245x300.jpg" alt="Raffaello Sanzio's Plato" width="245" height="300" /></span>
<p style="text-align: center;">http://www.mrdowling.com/701-plato.html</p>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"><!--more--> One may call Plato his admirable protegee, and which in effect is why we find him in character form throughout Plato’s works. Additionally, a second point of clarification more of it, Socrates was in fact imprisoned for his heretical works against Grecian beliefs. So, we can also say </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Crito </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">was in the realm of historical fiction. Fascinating if you ask me. But the story continues with a dialogue between Crito, an old friend of Socrates, and himself. The name Crito comes from, one of Socrates long-time follower and whom is whole-heartily concerned about his eminent execution. Crito offers to provide the means of an escape for his mentor, but Socrates, bothered by the repercussions of his actions, argues whether to escape or not. If Crito were to arrange an escape, he rationalizes, he would be breaking the Law of Athens as a citizen. This is unjust for Socrates since the Law exists as one entity, to act out against one law would be to act out against all laws, and should he go forth and do so, Socrates would affect the integrity of the Law. He explanation states that by living in a city/country one implicitly accepts the governing body of law. In a deductive sense, he then resolved that rather than breaking the law, he should persuade for his freedom. Having lived a nearly fulfilling life in Athens, Socrates should be satisfied to accord with his contractual obligations as a citizen. On the other hand, If Socrates chose to escape into exile, while having--for seventy years--abided by the Athenian law, he would not only outlaw himself from Athens but also from any other state for the remainder of his life. By his means of ethics, his actions would be heavily judged in the underworld for his unjust behaviour towards his city’s law. His criterion of justice then leads him to conclude his sentence would be best not served in an attempt to escape rather in the just punishment his people decide.</span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> Many of Plato’s treatise revolved around the trial of Socrates. It is thus the case in the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Crito</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">, as previously mentioned, and is a historical representation, by the hand of Plato, of the importance of civil obedience. Athens, a relatively new style of sociological organization, had yet to set in stone the significance or importance of a code of law. Plato provided the citizens of Athens an extension of his curiosity for the inter-workings of a functioning society. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Crito</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> is thought by many scholars as a precursor to the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Republic</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> which later visited the subject of the meaning of justice further into depth. “If the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Crito </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> is considered as a text in Virtue Ethics, we should expect it to shed light on this issue as the question it deals with is 'under what circumstances should one/Socrates obey the law?” </span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> Through the years after, and more specifically in the Sixth Century, cosmopolitan Greece where law, and the ethics associated thereof, were discussed in comparison to the trifles faced by Socrates. It is interesting to point out that the Grecian word for law, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">nomos,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> means custom. One may pass this of as an oversight of translation, but the essence of the matter is in its meaning not to us but rather why the people of Greece used such a duality. This is precisely the evidence we find in later editions of Grecian law, and the residual implications of Socrates trial. I find it important also to point out some historical differences between the two Athens. </span>
<p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">“In general, the ancients aimed at the good of the citizens as a whole, while contemporary liberals aim at the rights of the individual. Or in more detail: the ancients thought that, the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Times New Roman; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">telos </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Times New Roman; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">polis </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">being the good life of the citizens as a whole, that individual citizens could be called upon to suffer for the good of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Times New Roman; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">polis</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">; while liberals, conceding that different views of the good life sometimes cause conflict, hold that individual rights should trump the good of the whole so that individuals should not suffer for the good of the whole, but can only be punished for violating the rights of others.”</span></p>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">The liberal’s point of view serves as a segue for the opposition of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Crito.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> Although a grand majority of the opposition to Plato’s work came from the usage of Socrates to carry out his message in literary spirit, for Socrates was seen as a phony for claiming that it was his divine duty to be a moral citizen of Athens, people for this reason felt the need to seek, only in self-interest, their individual rights. His opposition made itself clear in many of Plato’s work and served as a historical reference to the relatively undocumented life of Socrates.Socrates begged the question, “Can the citizen put his own conscience above the law?” This is to date held as a highly grey-scaled question. Although we may still not have the answer to that question, we do, on the other hand, remain in a quasi-ancient exchange of ideas with both Plato and Socrates themselves. </span>

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> Keeping in mind that philosophy on self-governance is ever changing, Plato nevertheless provides a platform by which whatever society that may come ahead of us can prop up a government and ask themselves the same universal questions Plato had unto himself, and also, a more basic level, feel really great about human existence and its origins. </span>

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Works Cited:</span>

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Berges, Dr. Sandine. "THE PARENT ANALOGY IN PLATO'S CRITO." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Athenaeum Library of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Philosophy</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">. N.p., </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">2000. Web. 20 Feb 2011.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">&lt;http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/berges.htm&gt;. </span>
<p style="margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: -33pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Fierro, Gloria K.. "The Hummanistic Tradition." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Plato's Crito</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">. Comp. New York: McGraw-Hill, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">2010. Ditial.</span></p>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Jowett, Benjamin. "The Apology." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Athenaeum Library of Philosophy</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">2011. &lt;http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/plato_apology.htm&gt;. </span>

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Kraut, Richard, "Plato", </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2009 Edition)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">, Edward N. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Zalta (ed.), URL = &lt;http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2009/entries/plato/&gt;.</span>

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Protevi, John. "Plato's Crito." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Protevi</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">. Louisianna State University, n.d. Web. 20 Feb 2011. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">&lt;http://www.protevi.com/john/FH/PDF/Crito.pdf&gt;. </span>

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">"Socratic Citizenship: Plato, Crito." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Academic Earth</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">. Web. 20 Feb 2011. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">&lt;http://academicearth.org/lectures/socratic-citizenship-plato-crito&gt;. </span>

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