The Crito

1
The Crito

• Should Socrates flee prison in order to escape
  his unjust condemnation?
• Critos four reasons for escaping
• The majority will think ill of Socrates and his
  friends if he does not escape
• Since the court erred, it should not be obeyed
• The welfare of the children of Socrates requires
  his escape
• Death is an evil to be avoided

2
Socrates Reply to Crito

• Majority opinion is relevant only if true
• Rejection of Relativism
• Relativism truth determined by beliefs or
  attitudes we create truth
• One reason in support of some forms of relativism
  is that some truths are unobservable but
  knowable.
• How is this possible?
• Answer Perhaps such truths are determined
  according to relativism and, hence, knowable
  though unobservable
• Absolutism truth is determined by conditions of
  the world, not beliefs or attitudes we discover
  truth

3
Reasons Against Relativism

• Consistency
• if you are not a relativist in science or
  mathematics, why be a relativist in morals?
• The possibility of rational discussion regarding
  a topic (morals) precludes relativism
• If rational disagreement with the moral majority
  is possible, relativism is false

4
Reasons Against Relativism

• If morality is a matter of happiness happiness
  is an objective/absolute condition, then morality
  is objective/absolute relativism is false
• Is happiness an objective condition?
• What is happiness?
• Can we be mistaken about our own happiness?

5
Reasons Against Relativism

• If relativism were true, then what the Nazis did
  would have been right (for them)
• However, what the Nazis did was not right for
  them or for anyone
• So, relativism is false

6
Back to Socrates Replies to Crito

• Socrates children are better off by his death
  than exile. (Absolutism)
• We do not know whether death actually is a evil.
  Hence, we cant appeal to the evil of death as a
  reason to escape
• What of the injustice of the death sentence? Is
  civil disobedience just?

7
Civil Disobedience Justice

• Why does Socrates oppose civil disobedience?
• His implicit contract with Athens
• Promise to obey all laws, regardless of how they
  are enforced
• Is this a binding promise?
• Stability of Athens as a condition of Socrates
  happiness throughout life
• Lifes overall quality the final act
• To have lived well, Socrates must accept
  execution now
• Compare the artists last brush stroke or the
  parents dying act
• Too much is too much Just as moderation in
  eating is better than excess, so too not living
  too long is better than living too long.