Abstract

In Plato’s Crito, after Socrates’ attempt to persuade Crito that escaping is unjust, the personified Laws appear to persuade this time Socrates to the same effect. The ‘separation view’ argues that the Laws’ position is heterogeneous to Socrates’ in Part 2 and in the Apology, and takes it as lowering the level of argument to that of the many both in content and form. However, the Laws’ arguments are rather intended to lead Crito up to Socrates’ philosophical level. The parent/child analogy presented by the Laws is not such as to demand absolute obedience from citizens, nor such as to allow retaliation in morally symmetrical relations. The Laws’ model of justice is the principle of ‘persuade or obey’, based on the benefits the Laws bestow to citizens. Even abiding by the death sentence is for Socrates an act that helps him to achieve the good of avoiding injustice. The Laws whose brothers live in Hades as true judges are taken to be both the real benefactors and the standards of justice. Socrates’ comparison of the Laws’ arguments to the Corybantic pipes means that Socrates himself has received their curative effect so as to be convinced of perfect divine justice in Hades to come.