Socrates Argument and Critic
Socrates was a staunch believer in respect to the rule of law and an upholder of good virtues.
He was charged in an Athenian court of law and received the death sentence. According to him
and his friends, there is more than enough proof that he was wrongly charged and sentenced.
Crito, as well as others, felt that he should escape from prison and run into exile. They even
proposed to help him escape by bribing the prison guards but Socrates guided by his belief in
following the right virtues, questions each and every intention as to why he should escape from
prison. He follows Crito’s arguments about how the majority of Athenians and other people will
view Crito and his friends for letting him die in prison. He responds by asking Crito whether a
trainee should be concerned with what outsiders say or what the trainer says. Crito agrees with
him that the trainee should follow the trainer’s guidance and direction. According to Socrates,
the rule of law is the trainer, the same law that has led him to prison and to the death sentence.
He believes that whatever is right to the trainer is right to the trainee.
Socrates even claims to have had a dream of a comely lady welcoming him to a beautiful
paradise. This dream to him meant that the death sentence would grant peace to his soul. Crito
pushes to persuade him to follow his idea by showing how much pain Socrates’s death would
cause not only to his children but also to his friends. Socrates responds with an argument to
support his firm decision of agreeing with the court ruling. He tells Crito that both of them are
men of good virtues. Being a man of virtue means that even if one is wronged by another party,
it is not right to hurt the other party in return. He explains that even though the city and the court
