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 & Crito - 2

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

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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.

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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.

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Plato’s Apology

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

here Are two apologies (closely related)

• (1) Care for the soul (30b)

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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

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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

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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)

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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)

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Plato’s Crito

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