Socrates" Wisdom

In response to Crito’s arguments Socrates thinks about/believes first, why the opinion of the majority is not the most important opinion, second, what the results of escaping would be for the city of Athens, and third whether escaping is an unfair action such that it would harm Socrates” soul. Many of Crito’s arguments concern the opinion of the majority--what will they think if Crito does not help Socrates escape? What will they think if Socrates is not responsible for his children?

Socrates argues that the opinion of an expert is more important than the opinion of the majority. He gives the example of someone in training. Such a person does not pay attention to the (opinions about what could or should be done about a situation) of the general public, but to his trainer. If he listened to public opinion (take steroids, eat whatever you want, train 20 hours a day), he could hurt his body. Socrates extends the comparison to deciding on what the right way is to act. If we listen to the majority rather than experts we could harm our souls, the part of us that is badly hurt by wrong actions and benefited by right ones(Crito, 47a-48a).

Socrates does agree that as a majority, the general public has the power to put people to death, but he states that the most important thing is not living, but living a good life, so that it is not worth following the opinion of the majority if it means sacrificing something that is important for living a good life.(48b) The above is one of Socrates” most basic rules/ways of thinking - that the really important thing is not to live but to live well. Therefore he thinks about/believes whether it is good and kind to pay off the guards and escape. Socrates begins dealing with this issue by (thinking about/when one thinks about) the results for the city of Athens. He says that the laws and the city could be destroyed if he escaped. Legal judgments could lose their force if they were nullified by private people (who lawfully live in a country, state, etc.), and a city without laws would not remain unharmed and in one piece for very long.

In addition to harming the city, Socrates thought he would be harming the condition of his soul by escaping. First he thought his soul would be harmed because he assumed that by harming the city he would be also harming his soul. Being responsible for harm to others is something that causes harm to one’s soul. He also would have suffered harm to his soul because he broke an agreement. He made an understood (without words being spoken) agreement to follow the laws of Athens because he lived under them for seventy years, raised his children under them, and did not try to convince the city to change them.