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It is just before dawn in the prison, and Socrates' old friend Crito has bribed the guards: everything is ready for an escape. Socrates listens, then asks…
It is just before dawn in the prison, and Socrates' old friend Crito has bribed the guards: everything is ready for an escape. Socrates listens, then asks whether it would be right to break the law, even an unjust verdict. He imagines the Laws of Athens speaking to him, reminding him of everything he owes them, and decides to stay.
Context and significance
The Crito is very short and can be read in half an hour, but its question about duty to the state and the limits of obedience has never gone away. It sits between the trial in the Apology and the death scene in the Phaedo.
About the author
Plato (c. 428–348 BC) was born into an aristocratic family in Athens and became the devoted student of Socrates. After his teacher's trial and execution in 399 BC, he travelled, returned to Athens and founded the Academy, a school that lasted for centuries and counted Aristotle among its students.
Almost all his writings are dialogues in which Socrates questions his fellow citizens about justice, love, knowledge and the soul, from the Apology to the Symposium and the Republic. Known to Arab philosophers as Aflatun, he was read closely by al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd, and Western philosophy has been called a series of footnotes to him.