Plato's Crito: Why Socrates Chose Death

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Plato's Crito is a famous work of political philosophy in which Socrates seems to argue that we should obey unjust laws. But not all is as it seems. Reading Socrates' arguments in the Crito closely we can perceive that Plato imagines our commitment to obeying the law to be conditional on the justice of the state.
This dialogue also features Plato's theory of justice, as well as his theory of the soul. Socrates advances some of his most famous arguments about the body and the soul as well as knowledge and opinion.
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[@GreatBooksProf]

👋Hi Friends, Follow me on Instagram: instagram.com/greatbooksprof ✨📚

[@charleevictoria]

sooo helpful. just discovered plato's crito dialogue and this really was great for the main points of it all. THANK YOU!

[@GreatBooksProf]

Glad it was helpful!

[@emilycollins2579]

This video is so unbelievably useful! I’m currently doing my assignment on why we obey the law for my jurisprudence module, and the way you articulate Socrates’ defence for the State (especially at minute 7:22) just completely clicked in my mind, all thanks to you!

[@GreatBooksProf]

@@emilycollins2579 That’s great. Happy to hear that! I have to teach this book again next semester, so I’ll keep that explanation in mind.

[@omegakyratian413]

What a gem of a channel

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks! I try my best! 😄

[@euniqu]

YOU ARE SO UNDERRATED, I love the creativity and part where Crito and Socrates on jail talking was funny asl, Def sub!

[@decorumgun]

I needed this! Its so hard for me to read the texts for class becaause i cant sit still. awesome video. i can keep my hands busy and put everything together in my head.

[@hellorinnee]

Prof, this is great! That dialoguey thing you did with Crito? i think the tone was hilarious and I love it! Props for the signposts with the points, as always - makes it super clear! Much thanks!

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks Rinny! Nice to hear from you! I had a lot of fun with this one, so I'm glad you enjoyed it. Super interesting dialogue.

[@BaphomentIsAwsome666]

Socrates was following his daemon, his guiding spirt. I think he was right as we are talking about him now and the resolve to be just by yourself is something we all can relate to.

[@GrammeStudio]

Socrates refusing to escape to instead embrace his potential demise reminds me of a screenplay of apostle Paul refusing to follow the men who came to break him out where he asked "by whose authority do you think Rome has power?" the movie even injects many of Paul's words in Luke's testimony of him into the film dialogues, as if he's retelling them for the audience who are familiar. one notably being: "if Christ has not risen, our faith is in vain" in a sense Crito was to Plato like Luke was to Paul

[@ethanm7003]

Great video! It's always nice to see professors who know who to put things simply. You've made my bachelors that much easier. Thank you.

[@GreatBooksProf]

Glad to be of help! What are you studying?

[@kaantahtasiz3039]

This is the best channel on youtube I have ran across for a long time. Thank you a lot for your quality work and your time. I really appreciate the work you are doing.

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy it!

[@ep103103]

This really is a fantastic channel.

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks!

[@krishall2086]

Another reallly good one. If you ever get to the point where you're doing merch for your channel, put me down for a 'free Socrates' T shirt.

[@GreatBooksProf]

Excellent t-shirt idea! Lol. 😂

[@carsongiles7024]

God this is so helpful, needed a quick review before an exam and this is so helpful

[@tonybarriosjr]

amazing break down, thank you!

[@GreatBooksProf]

You’re welcome, Tony. Thanks for watching. Glad you found it worthwhile!

[@mecca777]

This is brilliant!! Thank you, sir.

[@GreatBooksProf]

You’re welcome! Glad you liked it.

[@maximilyen]

Passionate story telling, very motivating to listen

[@GreatBooksProf]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!

[@svtnsawr]

thank you so much! this was really helpful and easy to understand!

[@GreatBooksProf]

You’re welcome!

[@TheNutmegStitcher]

This was a good and difficult work to read with sophomores in a classical homeschool community class. Worth the effort.

[@JamesMzowa]

Thanks alot I have observed something important in this turting

[@TannerCLynn]

Great analysis! Thanks so much

[@GreatBooksProf]

You’re welcome Tanner! Thanks for watching.

[@jjanessmapalo2475]

thank you for this

[@layladagle1150]

really great video helped me out so much!

[@GreatBooksProf]

Happy to hear that, Layla! Are you studying Crito in a class or just reading it on your own?

[@iklim.sentunali]

it was so helpful thank you !!!!!!

[@crismiller3654]

I'm reading Crito for an introductory Philosophy class, and you really helped put into words what I was feeling. I could not verbalize it at the time, but other than the nature of preserving your principles, even if it means death, it's hard for me to agree that the individual be held to a higher standard than the state. While the individual is indebted to the state for being born and being educated, isn't the collective individual what allows the state to continue to exist? Taxes, soldiers, advancements and all other things necessary for a society to exist and advance, seem to be at least some form of repayment in my eyes. I appreciate your explanations, you made it easier for me to do some self-reflection, professor.

[@GreatBooksProf]

Hi Cris, I'm glad you found the video helpful as you formulated your thoughts. This tension between the state and the individual is, I think, a really important one and you're right to point it out. In the modern world, especially in liberal democracies I think we're more apt to think that states are simply conglomerations of individuals, and that all of the state's authority and power comes from the individuals who make up the state. Premodern societies probably had a greater sense of the "collective," or perhaps a stronger belief that individual lives were disposable and transitory while the state -- because it was bigger, more powerful, and outlived individual humans -- was something more significant and of greater value. Nevertheless, there is an awareness in ancient thought and literature that states can overstep and tyrannize individuals. Sophocles's play Antigone is a good study of this. The tyrannical leader Creon essentially insists that individuals ought to sacrifice anything and everything for the good of the state and that seems to be treated by Sophocles as an insane thing to believe. Socrates's belief that he cannot do an unjust thing, even though the state might do an unjust thing and still be considered just is really fascinating. Perhaps this same logic does apply to us. Maybe we would forgive a person or politician for doing something wrong, so long as they do the right thing most of the time? Socrates seems to hold himself to a higher standard and Plato often seems to represent him as a demi-god in his ability to always do the right thing even at great personal cost. Is he meant to be a role model? Can anyone live up to the standard Socrates sets? This is probably a very personal question for Plato who, as Plato's great student, was trying to follow in his footsteps.

[@crismiller3654]

@@GreatBooksProf Thank you for your insight and further reflections. I'm proud to say that my philosophy course and in extension your high quality video have sent me down a philosophy rabbit hole. I've gone out and purchased the complete works of Plato as well as Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. I appreciate your content, I can only envy your students for your in person lectures. Best wishes.

[@thenightwatchman1598]

socrates just didint want to admit no one liked him and that he wanted to die.

[@paulleverton9569]

Little known fact about Socrates. He invented sausage. Whilst watching a butcher Socrates suggested that the leftover bits of meat be ground up and stuffed into the leftover intestine. The Athenian butcher, Bobocles, tried the idea but Greek shoppers were never bothered, however a travelling Etruscan took some home to Italy and they were an overnight success.

[@savvageorge]

Interesting idea but I'm not sure how true it is. Nothing was ever leftover for ancient humans. They ate every part of animals including eyeballs. Stuffed intestines in a sausage shape probably pre-dates the invention of writing.

[@Edmonddantes123]

Given how incredibly obnoxious Socrates is, I’m surprised he had any friends left at this point

[@ProudAjax]

His friends were mostly young men who got a kick out of him being obnoxious to the elite, his style of debate is only used by obnoxious people 😂

[@thenightwatchman1598]

contrarian even to the bitter fucking end when it did him no favors.

[@emircanmusic]

really good job, it felt like watching a film

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Belladonna-x2c]

This is overall a quite good analysis, though I did find it distracting in its liberalism at times. I suppose that comes with the territory, what with Socrates arguing for the supremacy of the soul over one's material existence, but it is rather marked.

[@LunaStarRocks]

Just saved me hours of trying to figure out what is going on. I have a learning disability and I don’t understand old English very well.

[@Trushaggyful]

This was great

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@thenightwatchman1598]

kind of weird his skepticism ended were authority began.

[@yurrintinckelsonn812]

I remember in college this came up and I had ;the feeling Soc said the opposite and some gov scribe on a power trip re-wrote it . His death by stupid Law and his acceptance was more about him pointing out stupid Law. It worked. We are still talking about it. PR master. lol.

[@SpicyYams]

Thank you

[@GreatBooksProf]

You're welcome. Thanks for watching! Hope it was worthwhile.

[@heathercummins9778]

Isn’t Socrates argument about the state mattering more than the individual the exact relationship we have with corporations and employers?

[@vandertuber]

Great video, but I must disagree with Plato. Under Natural Law Theory, one need not obey an unjust law.

[@thenightwatchman1598]

plato, one of his students, thought so too.

[@vandertuber]

@@thenightwatchman1598 Do you mean Aristotle ?

[@thenightwatchman1598]

@@vandertuber both

[@dotsdot5608]

dang socrates sounds like jesus

[@GreatBooksProf]

There are some similarities…

[@karenwilson9528]

The state and perants have huge rights. But there are no rights without responsibility. They are linked by their very dictionary definitions.

[@josiedesir8712]

I wish you was my teacher 😔

[@GreatBooksProf]

Have you considered Eastern Canada? 😄📚 www.stu.ca/greatbooks/

[@thenightwatchman1598]

there is no just state. that was Socrates' only mistake.

[@benquinneyiii7941]

Santorini

[@tankyjones888]

I have not watched passed 2 minutes. However, if you are suggesting that Socrates suggests we must never break the law then you are flat out wrong, this is a mis-interpretation. The crito dialogue makes the case that if one has benefitted from the laws their whole lives and have not absconded from them despite having the ability to do so whenever they wish, but rather stayed in accordance with them; being forged by the education systems, the stare, the family and the ownership of property. Then it would be unjust to abscond from them at a late stage in life despite having gained benefit from them.

[@GreatBooksProf]

Interesting. Maybe you should watch past the first 2 minutes. 😉

[@tankyjones888]

@@GreatBooksProf I will but I need to finish this summary on nicomachean ethics book 4 and 5 first.

[@sultan1050]

We must not forget that athens was a democracy and citizens had the ultimate power to change any verdict. Socratese was popular among the public and public was responsible to prevent the injustice. Socratese didnt have much regard to the state, thats why he ended up in the prison. He punished the public by accepting the poison, as he was the only major defender of their rights. The state screwed the public of athens further and so hard after his death that Athenes ceized to exist as a skvereign entity and was subjugated by Masidonia, then by Romans and then by....

[@thenightwatchman1598]

exactly. socrates had a moment of weakness when it came to questioning the nature of the state. his entire arguement for why you should obey bascially comes down to you being a slave. the cynics were the ones who actually had the courage to take his socratic reasoning to its logical conclusion.

[@dewinmoonl]

Seems pretty Chinese in some of the thinkings actually. It might be from earlier days where people worked hard to establish a state and a desire to preserve it, even at one's cost

[@CraigCastanet]

Socrates was wrong on many counts. An unjust man, willing to be harmed and not retaliate in kind.

[@medicisounds1384]

just seems like a stubborn old man not wanting to be wrong to the he faces death.

[@Edmonddantes123]

Crito somehow confirms the f*scist vibes I got from the Republic

[@Jamric-gr8gr]

I can't belueve how crap "the father of western philosophy"'s arguments were so illogical and loser like

[@kamron_thurmond]

I am not a liberal Democrat? That was quite a big presumption that you made there.

[@Ofmyownvolition]

Socrates was a fool

[@tombstone909]

Your hair line being a massive crevasse is very distracting

[@GreatBooksProf]

This is really going to hurt my barber’s feelings. 😢💈

[@buddhstyle]

I feel like you don’t know the modern definition of “liberal democrat”

[@GreatBooksProf]

What do you mean by “the modern definition”? Because what I’m talking about is a liberal democracy, which is a technical term in political philosophy.