The Relationship Between Socrates And Plato

Greece is often credited as the birthplace of western civilization, as well as creating the foundation of political ideologies still used today. The development of these bases of governments would not be possible without input from the bright thinkers and philosophers of the ancient world. Of the ancient Greek philosophers, many had different ideas on what the ideal form of government was, and the city states of Greece allowed the many different forms to rise and fall. The many forms of government gave philosophers around the Mediterranean examples of how each of the governing systems work in the real world. Xenophon voices his observation of the government of Sparta under the rule of Lycurgus and Xenophon notes it’s a “system utterly different than most others” (Xenophon, n.d.). Xenophon continues to reference the differences of the Spartan system and the others of Greece creating this idea of separation. Going on to explain how the Spartans ruled he talks about the rights of each citizen and the differences between Sparta and Athens in ways such as the education of women and how the women of Sparta …show more content…
Plato’s Crito and Apology both address Athens democracy from Socrates view. The Crito is a Socratic dialogue between Crito and Socrates on the account of Socrates arrest and sentence to death. Crito is attempting to convince Socrates to escape his death while Socrates argues to stay and accept his punishment. At this time Athens had just broken from a tyrannical government whose leaders were students of Socrates. With the reestablishment of the democracy, Socrates was put on trial because of his teachings and sentenced to death. Socrates accepts his fate decided by the people and still speaks highly of Athens even though he disagrees with the decision. Crito disagrees with Socrates on the court’s decision and Socrates tells Crito what the citizens would say to him if he were to