Comparing Plato's Apology And The Crito

In both the Apology and the Crito, Socrates engages in a critique of the Athenian government and society. Socrates’ main criticism stems from the fact that Athens is a democracy. In doing so, Socrates rails against the Athenian way of life that democracy fostered. Through his arguments, Socrates delineates how he believes that a person and a society should act, i.e. justly, and how they should not. While neither the Apology nor the Crito offer a solution to these problems, Plato attempts to rectify them in The Republic by presenting a model of a utopian society. The main issue that Socrates appears to have with democracy in Athens is that in this system of government, the opinion of the masses is what is most important. In the Apology, Socrates …show more content…
In the Kallipolis, Plato’s version of a utopian society, there are to be three general classes of people: the producers, the auxiliaries and the philosopher kings (Katz, Lecture, 2/9/15). In this society, each man would do only “the job he was most naturally suited for (Plato, 433a) The auxiliaries and the philosopher kings would be the wisest people and therefore, the guardians of this society. Plato writes that the guardians would be expected to do only things that are “in the interest of the community” (412e). This is a direct answer to Socrates’ criticisms of democracy, as he showed that many of the people in society were irrational actors in that they were unjust and wanted to kill him even though it did not serve the community’s best interests. Additionally, these guardians would be constantly tested in their wisdom, the same way that Socrates was going around testing people’s wisdom, as described in the Apology (Katz, Lecture, …show more content…
In the Apology, Socrates criticizes the Athenian government as listening to the “opinion of the many” as opposed to listening to only the wise in society. (12) Plato’s Kallipolis rectifies this by creating a strict class system in which only the wisest and most dedicated people would be allowed into the ruling class. Additionally, the Kallipolis addresses the education of the young, in which they would all be questioned in order to instruct them and weed out the wisest ones. This is as opposed to the Athenian view as expressed by Meletus that anyone in society could teach and influence the children. Finally, Plato addresses Socrates’ criticism of the greed in Athenian society, particularly among the democratic rulers, by creating a system in which the ruling class would be forced to eschew all luxuries and other temptations of