Socrates on Responsibility to the City

At the heart of many of the questions on this website is Socrates' idea “that it's not living that should be our priority, but living well” (48b). When wondering how to live well, we also must ask why—and who gets to say whether we are. To whom or what are we responsible?

In 399 BCE, Socrates was sentenced to death for impiety and corrupting the youth. Plato's Crito recounts the dialogue between Socrates and his friend Crito days before Socrates' execution. Crito offers Socrates a chance to escape the city of Athens and live in exile, but Socrates refuses. In the following excerpt Socrates instead defends his responsibility to his city-state regardless of personal gain or loss.

Quote

[.alt-blockquote]"What if the laws [of Athens] then said [to me], 'Socrates, did we agree on this, we and you, to honor the decisions that the city makes? ... Come then, what reason can you give us and the city for trying to destroy us? Did we not, to begin with, give birth to you? And wasn't it through us that your father married your mother and conceived you? So show those of us, the laws concerning marriages, what fault you find that keeps them from being good?' 'I find no fault with them,' I would say.[.alt-blockquote]

[.alt-blockquote]“'What about the laws concerning the upbringing and education of children, by which you too were raised? Or didn't [they] give good instructions when they directed your father to educate you in the arts and gymnastics?' 'They did,' I would say ...[.alt-blockquote]

[.alt-blockquote]“'Are you so wise that it has slipped your mind that the homeland is deserving of more honor and reverence and worship than your mother and father and all of your other ancestors? And is held in higher esteem both by the gods and by men of good sense? And that when she is angry you should show her more respect and compliance and obedience than your father, and either convince her or do what she commands, and suffer without complaining if she orders you to suffer something? And that whether it is to be beaten or imprisoned, or to be wounded or killed if she leads you into war, you must do it? And that justice is like this, and that you must not be daunted or withdraw or abandon your position, but at war and in the courts and everywhere you must do what the city and the homeland orders, or convince her by appealing to what is naturally just? And that it is not holy to use force against one's mother or father, and it is so much worse to do so against one's homeland? What will we say to this, Crito? That the laws speak the truth? Or not?'”[.alt-blockquote]

[.alt-blockquote-attribution]—Socrates in Plato's Crito, 50c-51c, trans. Cathal Woods and Ryan Pack[.alt-blockquote-attribution]

Questions

• Do you see any possible dangers, limits, or exceptions to Socrates' understanding of the city's laws as a binding authority?
• How might Socrates' emphasis on responsibility to your political authorities support or contradict responsibility to one's own friends and family?
• Socrates' idea of responsibility to the city involves submission to the laws or “to persuade [the laws] if [they] are doing something improper” (51e). How would your participation in civic life change if you were responsible to your civil polity?
• Was there a time when you found yourself disregarding civil authorities? How would your feelings about this time change if you adopted Socrates' perspective?
• If citizens are responsible to the law, how should policymakers judge the validity of proposed laws? In other words, if we answer to our political communities, who do those communities answer to?

Context

• Crito
• Plato's Five Dialogues‍
• Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, Chapter 3: Who do we answer to?

Pairs Well With

• Interdependent conception of the self
• An ethic of fulfilling one’s social duties

Pairs Poorly With

• Robust individualism
• A utilitarian understanding of value
• A Confucian understanding of responsibility to family and ancestors