Plato’s “Crito”-Socrates in prison
Plato's "Crito" is a dialogue between Socrates and one of his closest friends Crito. The entire dialogue takes place in Socrates prison cell, where he awaits execution. Crito visits Socrates before dawn in order to persuade him to escape from prison and flee to another city or country. Crito has made all the necessary arrangements to smuggle Socrates out of prison to safety. To Crito's despair Socrates seems quite willing to accept his execution, and so Crito presents as many arguments as he can to persuade Socrates to escape. Socrates manages through a logical thinking process to demount all of Crito's arguments for escaping the prison.
Crito presents three arguments for why Socrates should escape. The first argument suggests that Socrates death would be a big loss for him personally considering him as someone who he "can never possibly replace". The second argument brought up by Crito suggests that his reputation will be damaged if he will allow the execution to happen. The public opinion will think that he and his friends did not want to spend any money in the attempt of saving Socrates. People won't know that Socrates chose to remain in jail. This argument is based on the old saying "help a friend in need" and Crito is implementing it to this occasion. The last argument and probably the most powerful one is Socrates responsibility towards his children. Crito mentions that Socrates has it in his "power to finish their bringing up and education, and instead of that you are proposing to go off and dessert them". This argument appeals to Socrates goodness and his lifelong pursuit to do righteous things. Crito argues that escaping is the right thing to do for the sake of his children's future.
In response to Crito's arguments, ...