Justice And Morality In Socrates's Crito

Justice is concerned with fairness and morality and virtue, a person who is just is not selfish and will willingly do the right thing no matter the effect it has on them. Justice demands this willingness to be fair, this is a characteristic that is extremely rare to come by. It is human nature to be concerned with the effects a certain action will have on yourself. A just person possesses the ability to set their thoughts about themselves aside and to act in a way that betters the whole (group, city, population). A just person is also willing to stand for what is right no matter the odds or number of people against them. When Socrates and Crito are arguing in the Crito, Crito shows concern for the “public opinion”. Socrates goes on to argue …show more content…
This is made especially apparent in the Apology when Socrates is attempting to figure out why the Delphi said that there was no man wiser than Socrates himself. After hearing this, Socrates proceeded to seek out politicians, poets, and craftsmen in order to question them and determine what makes him more knowledgeable than each of them in the eyes of the Oracle at Delphi. He systematically interrogates the politicians, poets, and craftsmen. Socrates goes on the conclude that the politicians were imposters and really did not know as much as he had expected them to. Also he discovered that not only did they lack knowledge outside of politics, they struggled to comprehend politics themselves although they acted like they knew everything. He also found that the poets failed to thoroughly understand even their own poetry, he compared these poets to prophets who did not understand what they were saying. Both of these types of poets or prophets are irrelevant. Craftsmen showed the most promise in the eyes of Socrates because they displayed expertise in regards to their profession. The downfall of craftsmen was that they attempted to carry over this expertise in all aspects of life. They wanted Socrates to think that they were all-knowing and he argued that they were only all-knowing in their craft. He asked himself whether he would rather falsely advertise himself like these people he spoke to, or be himself. Socrates tells the jury that he would rather be himself than anyone else. After his diligent experiment, Socrates believes that he is considered to be more intelligent than any of these men because he is willing to admit his ignorance. He is fully aware that he does not possess a unique amount of knowledge and is willing to admit that he is wrong or that he does not know the answer to a question. Because