Critos Reason to Escape Prison - Assignment Example

Crito’s Reason to Escape Prison Crito visits Socrates early in the morning after learning that the ship from Delos, whose arrival is being waited for Socrates to be executed, is set to arrive that day. He arrives at the break of dawn and finds Socrates still sleeping. During this early visit, Crito tries to persuade Socrates to escape prison (Plato, n.d.). His reasons are that if Socrates dies, not only will he lose an irreplaceable friend, but also people will think of him as an individual who values money more than a friend.

This is because they would blame him for not giving out money that would have actually played a role in saving his friend. Crito believes that no one would believe that he actually gave out money for Socrates to escape; but Socrates declined and according to him there is no any other disgrace than being considered as a person who values money compared to a friend. Crito’s reason for convincing Socrates to escape prison in order to avoid the death penalty is driven by the fact that he cannot believe that Socrates is justified in betraying his own life when he can be saved.

Crito asserts that Socrates betraying own life is akin to betraying his own children (Plato, n.d.). This is because he is choosing to leave them when he can bring them up and play a role in educating them. He challenges Socrates by saying that nobody should bring forth children when they are not willing to persevere till the end to educate and nurture them into responsible people. Socrates listens keenly to Crito before giving him reasons that counters his arguments. First and foremost, he tells Crito that he fears that Crito and his other friends may get into trouble with the informers for helping him escape.

Additionally, helping him to escape will make them lose their entire or a huge part of their property; or they may even face worse evil. In as much as Crito tries to convince him that they are willing to go to the extreme to ensure that he escapes, Socrates is exceptionally adamant. He gives Crito several premises and asks him whether he is right by saying that opinions of some people are to be valued and opinions others is not to be valued. In saying this, he was telling Crito not to value the opinion of people who will consider him as a person who values wealth as opposed to friendship (Plato, n.d.).

According to Socrates, the opinions of such people are the ones to be considered as opinions that do not matter. Additionally, Socrates asks Crito about a gymnastics disciple who attended to the praise, blame and opinion of every man instead of attending to the opinions of the only man who man who mattered, his trainer. In doing this, Socrates was reiterating the fact that Crito was not supposed to worry at all about the opinions of the masses since it did not matter.In conclusion, it can be assumed that despite Crito wanting the best for Socrates; his main argument was fear of the opinion of the people.

In respond to that, Socrates uses powerful premises and reasons to remind him that he should not worry about the opinions of everyone; instead he should consider the opinions of only those who matter. Therefore, he asserts that opinions of wise people are good, while opinions of the unwise are evil (Plato, n.d.). ReferencesPlato. (n.d.). Crito. Retrieved April 08, 2014, from http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/crito.html