The Argument In Plato's Dialogue, Crito

Plato’s dialogue “Crito” starts off with Socrates being visited in his jail cell by a long time friend, Crito. Socrates is in jail because he was sentenced to death for a few reasons. One include engaging in inquiries into things beneath the Earth and in the heavens, and of making the weaker argument appear stronger and teaching it to others. They were accusing him of being sophist, in other words, a teacher of the higher. For these charges he was sentenced to death, but had a chance to rebuttal for a different sentence but instead he said that he should be offered the feast of an olympian. He was sentenced to death a second time and accepted it. That is why Crito came to visit him. Crito doesn’t want to see Socrates die, especially this way, so he came to the jail to …show more content…
Socrates is very stubborn but Crito offers several arguments and the most convincing one is when says “Socrates, I do not think what you’re doing is just, to give up your life, when you can save it, and to hasten your fate, as your enemies would hasten it, and indeed have hastened it in their way to destroy you.” (Plato, Crito 48)
The argument above is strong for several reasons. It’s important to remember that Plato is negotiating with Socrates so he must use a certain rhetoric while talking to make sure Socrates listens to what he says. Socrates is a man of interrogation and critical thinking and Crito does an excellent job of bringing up points that give Socrates something to think about. Socrates loves justice, and in Critos tells the former that what he is doing is unjust. The reason that Socrates doesn’t want to escape is because he thinks it to be