Book contents
- Plato’s Crito
- Cambridge Studies in the Dialogues of Plato
- Plato’s Crito
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Dialogue’s Place in the Corpus
- Chapter 2 Character and Setting
- Chapter 3 The Arguments
- Chapter 4 The Corybantic Buzz
- Chapter 5 The Legal, the Political and the Ethical
- Bibliography
- Translation of the Crito
- Index
Chapter 3 - The Arguments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 March 2026
Book contents
- Plato’s Crito
- Cambridge Studies in the Dialogues of Plato
- Plato’s Crito
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Dialogue’s Place in the Corpus
- Chapter 2 Character and Setting
- Chapter 3 The Arguments
- Chapter 4 The Corybantic Buzz
- Chapter 5 The Legal, the Political and the Ethical
- Bibliography
- Translation of the Crito
- Index
Summary
An analysis of the main deliberative argument of the dialogue, showing how the speech of the laws provides premises needed for that argument. The argument between Socrates and Crito that one must in no circumstances do wrong needs to be completed by establishing that it is wrong to break an agreement and that an agreement exists beween Socrates and the city, and this is what the speech of the laws provides. The dialogue contains a single main argument, a practical deliberation. Socrates’ determination to follow the argument whereever it leads is thus dramatically illustrated by his willingness to die for this principle (which he construes as the path on which the god leads him).
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- Chapter
- Information
- Plato's Crito , pp. 14 - 58Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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