Week 10

INTRODUCTION TO
THE HUMANITIES:
CRITO
Andrew Komasinski, PhD
Hokkaido University of Education Asahikawa
Vocabulary Terms to Look Up #1
• Plot (n)
• Anticipate (v)
• Eagerness (n)
• Keenness (n)
• Reputation (n)
• Slander (v)
• Deprived (adj) (deprive (v) 由来)
• Inflict (v)
• Bogey (n)
Topics for Today
• The crowd / the majority / They
• Justice
• Integrity
• The Cave (Republic)
Reputation
• “On purpose”  “It was on purpose that I
did not wake you”
• Majority (n)  “My good Crito, why
should we care so much for what the
majority think?”
• Absurd (adj)  “Absurd ending [of the
trial]”
• “The one”
⇔ “The many”
• “Would that …” (であればよいのに)
The Basic Plot of the Crito
• Crito is a rich friend of Socrates
• Crito comes the day before the “ship
arrives from Delos” (習慣的もの)  The
day Socrates will die
• Crito has come to ask Socrates to escape
• But Socrates refuses to escape, because
he thinks that would be wrong based on an
argument.
Crito’s Argument: The Majority 1
• Crito: if you die, I and many people will
be deprived of you (岩76.4-5).
• Crito: “Surely there can be no worse
reputation than to be thought to value
money more highly than one’s friends”
(44c/ 岩76.7)
 It will look bad for me [Crito]
Crito’s Argument: The Majority 2
• WHY? “for they majority will not
believe that you yourself were not
willing to leave prison while we were
eager for you to do so” (47c)
｢多衆はそれを本当にしはすまいからね｣
(岩76.9)
• Socrates: “Why should we care so
much for what the majority think?”
Crito’s Argument: The Majority 3
• Crito: “Your present situation makes
clear that the majority can inflict [not just
small but also great harm to someone
who is slandered]”
Q: Does Crito think they have power?
Crito believes the majority has great
power to do harm
Crito’s Argument: Majority 4
• Crito believes the majority has great
power to do harm
• Socrates: “Would that the majority could inflict
the greatest evils, for they would then be
capable of the greatest good, and that would be
fine, but they cannot do either” (44d / 岩77.1)
Q: Does Socrates agree?
 No, he thinks they do not have great power
Crito’s Argument: Majority 5
• Please discuss with the people
around you whether you think
the majority has great power.
For instance:
bullying?
The recent election in Japan
Crito’s Argument: Majority 6
Crito’s further claims:
“Besides, Socrates, I do not think [choosing to
die] is just“ (45c / 岩78.13)  It is an injustice
to let your self die.
Because: If you die, “you are betraying your
sons … You show no concern for their fate”
(45c-d /岩79.4).  It is not virtuous.
It is cowardice: we could have stopped the trial.
Crito’s Argument: Majority 7
Socrates’s response: “My dear Crito, your
eagerness is worth much if only it should
have some right aim; if not, then the greater
your keenness the more difficult it is do deal
with” (46b / 岩80.8).
「君の熱心は大いに尊重に値する、ただそれが
ある程度正しい道に叶っていさえするなら。だ
がもしそうでなかったら、それが大きければ大っ
きいほどまsます堪え難くなる。」
Q: What does Socrates say is important?
Socrates’s Argument: Truth
Q: What does Socrates say is important?
= Building on the right answers.
 Socrates: “We must therefore examine
whether we should act in this way or not, as
not only now but at all times I am the kind of
man who listens to nothing within but the
argument that on reflection seems best to
me” (48b-c / 岩80.9)
Socrates’ Argument: Integrity
• His standard (標準) of right and wrong is
not the majority:
“I value and respect the same principles
as before …. I shall not agree with you,
not even if the power of the majority were
to frighten us with more bogeys, as if we
were children, with threats of [prison] and
executions [死刑]” (46c / 岩81.6)
Integrity
• We call this idea integrity.
• For buildings, integrity means they
will stand against the weather and
earthquakes.
• For people, we mean that they are
true to their words and ideas
(=誠実)
Socrates’ Argument
Which opinions should we care about?
• “Good opinions” or “bad opinions”?
 Good opinions
Who has good opinions?
• Wise men have good opinions
• Fools have bad opinions
But who is wise?
Socrates’ Analogy
But who is wise?
“Should a man professional engaged in
physical training [すなわち an athlete] pay
attention to the praise and blame of any other
man, or to those of one man only, namely a
doctor or trainer?” (47b / 岩83.13)
He should listen to the person who knows
(岩84).
Socrates’ Argument by Analogy
The athlete should listen to the one who knows.
The one knows knows what helps and harms
(47c-d).
For Socrates and Crito, life is not worth living
with a broken body (47e / 岩84) [現代と違う]
--------------------------------------------------------------Q: What about things that help us live justly
or unjustly (47e / 岩85)
Socrates’ Argument by Analogy
• He should listen to the expert who
knows about justice (岩85).
• NOT the majority:
• “We should not then think very much of what
the majority will say …” (48a / 岩85.10)
Socrates’ Argument by Analogy
• AND it is not worth living if we do not
live justly:
• “the most important thing is not life, but the
good life … and the good life, the beautiful life,
and the just life are the same.” (48b)
• 一番大切なことは単に生きることそのことではなく
て、善く生きることであるという…また善く生きること
と美しく生きることと正しく生きることは同じだという
こと(岩86.2, 86.4)
Socrates’ Test: Is it Just?
• Socrates then asks if it is just for him to try to
escape – not whether he will live:
• “We must examine next whether it is just for
me to try to get out of here” (51b / 岩86.8)
• “If it appears that we will be acting unjustly,
then we have no need to take into account
whether we shall have to die if we stay here …
rather than do wrong” (51d / 岩87.4)
Socrates’ Dilemma
• Either it is just to escape or unjust.
• IF it is just to escape, then Socrates
must escape to keep his integrity.
• IF it is unjust to escape, then Socrates
should not escape to keep his integrity.
• Therefore, Socrates must either escape
or not.
Socrates and Justice
• “Do we say that one must never in any way do
wrong willingly, or must one do wrong in one
way and not in another?” (49a)
• 「人はいかなる事情の下にも、決して故意に不正
を行ってはならないというのか、それとも、ある場
合には行ってもいいが他の場合はいけないとうい
のか」（岩88.1）
 We say it is always wrong to do wrong.
Socrates and Justice 2
• Socrates: What if they hurt us first?
• It is still wrong!
• Socrates: Do we have a right to break our
agreements?
• No!
• Ergo, Socrates cannot leave Athens
Plato’s Cave: Background in Crito
Behind Socrates’ thought is the idea that
there is an idea of justice that is bigger than
just the agreement of the majority.
AND the expert can know these ideas.
(This is different than the Apology. Q: What
was Socrates’s position about knowledge
in the Apology? )
Plato’s Cave: Republic
In Plato’s Republic (国家), he presents a
very important image for understanding his
thought about human beings and what we
can and do know.
In English, we call this the “Allegory of the
Cave”
Allegory
of the
Cave:
Image
Allegory of the Cave: Human Knowledge
• There is true knowledge out there. We call
it the forms or ideas. (Light of the Sun)
• We live in a world where opinion is
everyone. (Shadows)
• We are blind to what is real.
• We find encountering reality painful.
Plato and Knowledge
• For Plato, the best people can
normally have is right opinion
• But we have knowledge of the
FORMs because we are eternal
beings. We just forgot! And need to
be jarred to recall.
Paper Topic for the Final
• For this class, the question for your final
paper is to share your opinion about human
knowledge.
• In it, you need to discuss either Socrates
(from the Apology) = “the wisest is to know
that we cannot know”, Plato (from the Crito)
= “wisdom is to pursue truth not mass
opinion”, or Aristotle (from the part of the
Nicomachean Ethics we read)

Download Report