Crito
Crito visits the condemned Socrates with a practical escape plan. Their conversation tests whether friends, reputation and family obligations justify leaving prison, then introduces the Laws as speakers demanding an account of civic commitment.
Understanding the text
The scene falls between conviction and execution. Its personified argument must be read alongside Socrates’ refusals of unjust commands in the Apology.
Key points
- 01
Injury and retaliation
Suffering injustice cannot by itself authorize committing injustice; whether escape actually wrongs anyone remains a further question.
- 02
The relevant judge
Socrates distinguishes the opinion of the many from the judgment of someone who understands justice, however unpopular.
- 03
The Laws’ speech
Residence, education and available opportunities to leave become grounds for an obligation whose exact strength remains controversial.
Explore the ideas in depth
Escape or answer for one’s actions
Crito offers to arrange the escape of Socrates, who has been sentenced to death. Affection, children and the friends’ reputation give the scene concrete urgency. Socrates nevertheless asks whether majority opinion decides the matter and whether answering one injustice with another can ever be just.
The laws speak
Athens’ laws are then personified and invoke education, citizenship and the possibility of persuading the city. Their arguments do not automatically establish unlimited obedience to every law or state: examine what the dialogue makes them say, Socrates’ circumstances and possible objections.
How to read it
Keep the Laws’ claims separate from assumptions you already hold about obedience. Test how tacit agreement and the possibility of persuasion work in their argument.
Editions & sources
Summaries and key points are original editorial interpretations. They accompany reading the work and do not replace an edition of the text. Editorial method ↗