Justice or Freedom?: Socrates in Prison (Plato's Crito)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 มิ.ย. 2024
- Plato's dialogue the Crito depicts one of the final days in the life of Socrates, when his rich friend Crito attempted to help Socrates escape from prison. Amazingly, instead of going along with this plan, Socrates takes on a personification of the Laws of Athens and argues for why he should allow himself to be executed. By doing so, he gives us one of the earliest expressions of a social contract theory. A city allows its citizens to flourish under its protection, therefore its citizens should at least uphold its laws and the decisions of its courts. But like most dialogues, there are many unanswered questions. What if the law or decision of the court was unjust? Should he have tried to escape then? Let me know what you think in the comments!
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The Trial and Death of Socrates (Plato's Apology): • The Trial of Socrates ...
For more videos on Greek culture, check out this playlist: • Slavery in Ancient Greece
Want to read this dialogue? Check out this link!:
classics.mit.edu/Plato/crito.html
00:00 Introduction
01:50 Preamble to the Dialogue
03:11 Crito's Arguments
06:31 Whose opinion should we value?
07:58 Socrates personifies the Laws
12:45 The legacy of this dialogue
14:21 A quote
16:01 Outro
You're uploading these videos just as I started reading the texts, I will definitely be using these as a supplement, good work!
Great video! I think that this video, especially with MLK’s excerpt at the end, effectively defends Socrates’ decision not to flee from criticism like the example you’ve given. However, I would be interested to hear a well-argumented take from the other side as well.
Great videos, i really like your channel, found it recently. They are pleasant to listen to especially to gain more context to their society.
Thank you!
I first came across Socrates by way of a collection of American children's Encyclopaedia. Every topic was covered within about 500 words and some cartoonish animation, I was 27 years old and facing an acrimonious divorce litigation. I'd dropped out of college 10 years earlier barely able to read or write. Family Court proceedings meant I was compelled to step up to the debilitating task of hiring a lawyer. I also took refuge in my very young daughter's encylopaedia. As it turned out litigation transpired into many different lawyers being involved, two Psychologists, and due to unforgivable delays, numerous different magistrates. At the time I was illiterate (poor recollection), however I could appreciate the Children's Encyclopaedia, but it wasn't enough for custodial determination or, sadly welfare for my child. It did lead me to Plato's four volume 'Republic'. It took many months of rereading passages for me to realise I, and consequently my daughter stood no chance at all in court. 😢 "Reading" Republic, though, opened my senses up to a world far beyond my myopic, and violent childhood. Since then, I have read 100s of books, and have written continuously, unfortunately oration is still a nervous obstacle. The recent appearance of these biographical videos on Socrates, delivered in plain English further elucidates the heart of Socrates' brilliance. So, Thank You One and All. However, in my deep search for meaning, IMHO there is a power higher than a 'just law'. It is natural law. I had difficulty keeping pace with humans whose name's were followed by LLB, QC or PhD, blah, blah, blah. In the statute there is a sentence that reads, "the welfare of the child is paramount". There was alot about that whole mess that was wrong. (Yeah. Cynics will make assumptions based on these few words, no doubt.) The level of education of both parents was never considered. Personally, this particular video has highlighted Socrates's greater contribution to a man's true destiny: We live on the edge of madness!
Damn powerful one
Isn't there a quote "attributed" to Socrates that states "I am not a citzen of Athens, but a citizen of the world."? If Socrates truly said that, wouldn't that nullify his argument that he should follow the state orders from Athens, because he does not consider himself a citizen of it?
I have not heard that saying attributed to Socrates, I did find some later ancient sources like Plutarch and Epictetus who attribute that quote to him, but there's no expression of cosmopolitan ideals from Socrates anywhere in Plato's dialogues. The quote is actually from Diogenes the Cynic, who is credited as the first to use the term "cosmopolitan".
Diogenes was deeply inspired by Socrates though, and I think one of the things that inspired him was how he tried to stay out of politics, but Socrates seems to have been too conservative to take the radical step of disavowing his city and his citizenship. Thanks for watching!