Political Philosophy

Crito

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Plato

399 BC

Set in Socrates's prison cell on the eve of his execution, the Crito presents his friend Crito's urgent plea that Socrates escape — the means have been arranged and the cost is trivial. Socrates refuses, and in doing so articulates one of the earliest and most rigorous accounts of the citizen's obligation to the law: the argument of the Laws, a personification of Athens's legal order that reminds Socrates of what he owes the city that raised, educated, and sustained him. The dialogue is a foundational text in social contract theory and legal philosophy.