Socrates Dissatisfied An Analysis of Plato's Crito

by Weiss, Roslyn

• ISBN13: 9780195116847
• ISBN10: 0195116844
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-12-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In this book, Roslyn Weiss contends that, contrary to prevailing notions,Plato's Crito does not show an allegiance between Socrates and the state thatcondemned him. Denying that the speech of the Laws represents the views ofSocrates, Weiss deftly brings to light numerous indications that Socratesprovides to the attentive reader that he and the Laws are not partners butantagonists in the argument and that he is singularly unimpressed by the caseagainst escaping prison presented by the Laws. Weiss's greatest innovation isher contention that the Laws are very much like the judges who preside atSocrates' trail--interested not in justice and truth but in being showndeference and submission. If Weiss's argument is correct, then the standardconception of the history of political thought is in error--political philosophybegins not with the primacy of the state over the citizen but with theaffirmation of the individual's duty to act in accordance with his own carefuldetermination of what justice demands.

Author Biography

Roslyn Weiss is associate professor of philosophy at Lehigh University. She has published numerous articles on Plato and on Maimonides

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: A Dissatisfied Socrates	3	(4)
2. Remaining at the Station	7	(32)
Justice and Philosophy	7	(1)
Authority and Law	8	(7)
Gods and "The God"	15	(9)
Athens	24	(3)
Proper Conduct in Court	27	(3)
The Penalties	30	(6)
Hades	36	(3)
3. Running the Risk for Friendship	39	(18)
Crito as Socrates' Friend	39	(4)
The Unphilosophical Crito	43	(6)
Crito's Conception of the Just, the Brave, and the Shameful	49	(2)
Crito's Questionable Morality	51	(3)
Crito's Manner of Addressing Socrates	54	(3)
4. The Philosophical Argument against Escape	57	(27)
Socrates' Procedure for Solving Moral Questions	58	(5)
Socrates' Moral Principles	63	(9)
Socrates' Argument against Escape	72	(9)
Socrates as Crito's Friend	81	(3)
5. "Especially an Orator"	84	(12)
Protecting Crito	85	(1)
The Laws as Rhetoricians	86	(2)
The Citizen's Agreement	88	(8)
6. "Whatever We Bid"	96	(38)
The City as Parent and Master	98	(14)
The Argument from Agreement	112	(12)
Escape Will Benefit No One	124	(10)
7. The Corybantic Cure	134	(12)
The Corybantic Metaphor	134	(6)
Why Crito Would "Speak in Vain"	140	(3)
The Way the God Is Leading	143	(3)
8. A Fool Satisfied	146	(15)
Engaging Crito	150	(5)
Benefiting Crito	155	(3)
Protecting the Reader	158	(3)
9. Restoring the Radical Socrates	161	(10)
Bibliography	171	(4)
Index	175