In the Crito, the personified Laws that play a role in Socrates’ decision of remaining in prison and willingly wait for execution even when his friend Crito urges him to flee away do not at all speak for him, (Harte, 133). Rather, it represents the city of Athens together with its laws. The Laws are in substance and style. They rhetorically defend the authority of the law. Socrates has his reasons for choosing to remain in prison; escaping would violate his agreement that was publicly announced that he would abide by his penalty and that by escaping his life, his friend and that of his children would not be comfortable since they would be doing the wrong thing. But although Socrates explains his reasons, Crito do not understand and continues to make Socrates agree to his proposal
...of fleeing away to exile.
The primary purpose of this paper is to make a detailed study of the personification of those Laws from the philosophy of law. The Laws prosopopoeia is an aspect that helps in understanding the play. This is because they start a dialogue that is imaginary with Socrates whereby many philosophical arguments are being exposed so as to base the polis authority. In identifying the value of this resource that is clearly argumentative in the play, I will first analyze what nomos is according to the 5th century BC Athens. Secondly, I will also examine the nature of the Laws as seen in the general context of the whole dialogue. The paper aims to show how the Laws are important in explaining the decision by Socrates to drink the hemlock instead of the available to
choose by Crito to escape and with a better place being provided for him to stay while in exile.
Work cited
- Garver, Eugene. "PLATO'S CRITO ON THE NATURE OF PERSUASION AND OBEDIENCE." Polis: The Journal of the Society for Greek Political Thought 29.1 (2012): 1-20.
- Harte, Verity. "Conflicting values in Plato’s Crito." Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 81.2 (1999): 117-147.
- Strauss, Leo. The Argument and the Action of Plato's LAWS. University of Chicago Press, 2014.
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