Preview

Crito, "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right"

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
750 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Crito, "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right"
According to the Crito dialogue, Socrates argues that "two wrongs don't make a right." In this argument, Socrates claims that no matter how unjust someone was treated, it never gives them justification to injury someone. I will argue that there is a potential objection to the claim of Socrates' argument. I will show that it is possible to oppose the idea that with or without prior injustice from someone it is unjust to do injury to them; by showing that without prior injustice it is justifiable to injure someone. Finally, I will illustrate why Socrates would be unable to produce an adequate reply to this objection due to the fact that the only thing that is important in life is justice.
In the Crito, Socrates' argues "two wrongs do not make a right" and he should not accept Crito's offer to help him escape from prison. Socrates argues that he should not escape from prison, the reason being that a best life to live is one of justice. Since it is always unjust to do something to someone, without previous injustice from them then it is also unjust to do something to someone with previous injustice. Also without prior injustice by someone then it is unjust to injure them. So, it is always unjust to injure anyone. Because it is always unjust to injure anyone, if Socrates were to escape from prison he would be injuring the State, therefore it is unjust for Socrates to flee from prison.
There is a potential objection to the main claim. The most challenging objection to the claim becomes apparent when the idea that, without prior injustice by someone it is unjust to injure them, is more closely analyzed. This objection to this argument becomes apparent when we consider the situation what if; when injuring someone, you protect someone else from a greater harm. An instance in which it would be just to injure someone is this, what if in order to save someone from a potentially serious injury or a possible death situation, it was required for you to break

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Plato's Crito Worksheet

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages

    3. Socrates says “As we have agreed so far, we must examine next whether it is just for me to try to get out of here when Athenians have not acquitted me.” In the exchanges following this statement, he obtains Crito’s…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Crito

    • 638 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Crito offers Socrates to escape prison and run away to another city, because he says it will be painful for him to lose such a good friend this way and that there are many people waiting to help, and also that they will be disappointed if he didn’t escape. Socrates says he is worried that if he escapes Crito and his companions will be in danger. Crito says it is easy to bribe them because he and his friends have enough money.…

    • 638 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Socrates looks to the priest to tell him what exactly is pious so that he may educate himself as to why he would be perceived as impious. Found in the Apology, another of Plato's Five Dialogues, Socrates aims to defend his principles to the five hundred and one person jury. Finally, the Crito, an account of Socrates' final discussion with his good friend Crito, Socrates is offered an opportunity to escape the prison and his death sentence. As is known, Socrates rejected the suggestion. It is in the Euthyphro and the Apology that it can be deduced that Socrates is not guilty as charged, he had done nothing wrong and he properly defended himself. However, in the Crito, it is shown that Socrates is guilty only in the interpretation and enforcement of Athens' laws through the court system and its jurors. Socrates' accusations of being blasphemous are also seen as…

    • 1659 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the Crito, Plato introduces several arguments that Socrates makes on whether or not it would be just for him to escape from prison when the Athenians have not acquitted him. Socrates begins by arguing that one must never do wrong. One of the most compelling arguments that he goes on to make is that doing harm to someone is wrong and therefore one must never engage in retaliatory harm. Under certain circumstances, such as self-defense, retaliatory harm is necessary. Socrates also argues that whenever you violate an agreement, you harm the person you made the agreement with. Therefore, escaping is wrong. In this paper, I shall argue that although the arguments support…

    • 1536 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crito Argument

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The dialogue of The Crito evaluates one of the last days of Socrates life. Upon which, Socrates has been awaiting his execution for a month due to a religious mission to the island of Delios, sacred to Apollo during which no executions can take place, insinuating that Socrates has had much time to ponder his sentence and escape, as well as the result of further action. Crito eagerly attempts persuading Socrates to escape by presenting many gripping arguments. Socrates responds to these arguments by asking/interrogating Crito with questions surrounding pressing life principles that both men agree on and by doing so provides an argument against Crito’s encouragements of escape.…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the article's of "Crito," by Plato, and "Letter from Birmingham Jail," by Martin Luther King, Jr., two writers make a case over whether it is moral or not to disobey laws. The question to be answered in our final paper asks whether we agree with what the Laws say about if Socrates was to escape and why we feel that way. It also asks how we think Martin Luther King would have responded to the judgment of the Laws of Athens. In this paper, I will address these questions as well as do a quick overview of each article.…

    • 1797 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Plato's "Crito" is a dialogue between Socrates and one of his closest friends Crito. The entire dialogue takes place in Socrates prison cell, where he awaits execution. Crito visits Socrates before dawn in order to persuade him to escape from prison and flee to another city or country. Crito has made all the necessary arrangements to smuggle Socrates out of prison to safety. To Crito's despair Socrates seems quite willing to accept his execution, and so Crito presents as many arguments as he can to persuade Socrates to escape. Socrates manages through a logical thinking process to demount all of Crito's arguments for escaping the prison.…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story of Crito, Socrates is in prison and awaiting his execution that he was found guilty by corrupting the youth and also supporting other gods that the city of Athens did not. Throughout his trial, Socrates argued each of the things he was charged for and made it very clear that it was not just for him to be found guilty for these actions. The jury ended up finding Socrates guilty through a very slim vote that was not necessarily fair by any means. As Socrates sat in his cell, one of his very faithful friends, Crito, decided to come talk to him. He gave Socrates the opportunity to escape prison and live the life of a wanted man instead of facing his execution. As the story of Crito goes on, he asks himself a number of questions deciding on what he was going to do and whether it would be just or unjust for him to escape prison. Socrates eventually decided that he was going to stay in prison and face his execution instead of escaping, for the act of escaping prison would be unjust and breaking the laws of the city. I agree with Socrates’ decision that he made and feel like he did the just thing by facing his execution.…

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Socrates meets with some of his friends and begins discussing the meaning of justice and whether the just life is better than the unjust life. First, they contemplate the meaning of justice. Cephalus stated that justice is as simple as telling the truth and returning what you receive, Polemarchus stated that justice is giving each his due, and Thrasymachus stated that justice is the advantage of the stronger. Socrates proves each of them wrong and embarks on a discussion to find out what true justice is, and to find out whether the just man is truly happier than the unjust man, or vice versa.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Plato’s theory of justice is about equality and that one deserves punishment if they do commit an unjust action. During the Crito, Socrates tries to correct a lot of points that Crito is trying to argue with him about, what it means to be justice. To be justice, means a human being that does good based on the laws that are emplaced according to the state. Good people according to Socrates are only worth considering. People that do good are considered moral people, and have opinions that should be regarded because their inputs are considered to be ethically correct. Being a human of ethical virtues means that they must not do wrong. Anything that is immoral, is considered immoral. We as humans may not intervene in activities that deem to be…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Personally, I find that Socrates’ conclusion that committing injustice is worse to be the right one. Seeing as how Socrates was oftentimes more concerned with the wellbeing of the soul over the body, it makes sense that he would decide that acting in an unjust way would do more damage to an individual than having someone act that way towards…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Socrates Vs Crito

    • 2078 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Critos first argument is that if Socrates does not get away, then he will hurt crito in two ways…

    • 2078 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ethical Egoism

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Socrates viewpoint about remaining in jail and being executed is all based on the idea that if he breaks out of jail he would be unjust, and just in general goes against his beliefs. “ Socrates wants to abide by the law because he respected the city as well as the laws that governed Athens. Living by such laws allowed Socrates to lead what he perceived to be the just life, therefore the good life. For Socrates “it is never right to commit injustice or return injustice to defend one self against injury by retaliation. “ “ Then we ought not to retaliate or render evil for evil to anyone, whatever evil we may have suffered from him.” If Socrates would to escape, then it would be breaking the law. Even if he felt that the jury was wrong for convicting him, his intention is not to return a wrong for another wrong. Socrates can’t escape if he thinks that doing that action is unjust, he has personal principles which is that just action is the right action and going against that principle would be unjust. To do an unjust action ruins one soul and life isn’t worth living with a ruined soul. Socrates believed that there was no point in living, if his life was not moral and just. To him quality of his life is more important than the quantity of it. In addition, Athens protects him with right and laws and he feels that in return he has to obey them by being just.…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Socrates Unjust

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This establishes that whether or not Socrates originally believes his punishment is right, by staying in Athens his entire life, he made a commitment to follow the law-being just-therefore, if he is accused of breaking the law and is convicted by the courts of Athens, which represent the law, then he must complete his sentence, or else he is only becoming more unjust. Socrates later decides that although he could escape, it is better to try and do the right thing, despite having done unjust things in the past, and ultimately decides to carry out his punishment. This passage also further examines the gray area within the idea of just and unjust by saying that following the laws is just; however, the people of the court who determine which acts are within the bounds the laws and which acts are not, are also biased according to their own personal perceptions, meaning no human truly knows the intransigent definitions of what is just and what is unjust.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Socrates Arguments Crito

    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Socrates argues that it is necessary for the state to punish him as he has not acted within the laws…

    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics