Plato's Crito
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Plato's Crito
Argues that the Crito's central purpose is to illustrate an ideal pattern of moral reasoning in hard cases and the importance of being dedicated to clearly articulated reasoning regardless of the consequences. Includes a fresh, new translation of the dialogue.
A fresh reading of this crucial Socratic dialogue that challenges the dominant interpretation of it as fundamentally political.
Many people read the Crito primarily as a companion piece to the Apology and as one of Plato's statements on the nature of politics and the citizen's relationship to the state. This book challenges both of those assumptions and shows, by close analysis of the characters, the argument, and the dramatic features of the dialogue, that it is best read as an exploration of the nature and significance of Socratic moral reasoning.
It shows that there is a single argument throughout the dialogue and that the 'Laws of Athens' are best understood as supporting Socrates' attempt to convince Crito that a commitment to the currently best rational argument justifies his submission to the death penalty, despite the injustice of his sentence.
The importance of the Crito for later political and legal theory is great, but the reception of the dialogue should not blind us to its original intention and significance.
Series: Cambridge Studies in the Dialogues of Plato
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INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780521768153
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 12 March 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Illustration: Worked examples or Exercises
Audience: Tertiary education
DIMENSIONS
Weight: 500g
Pages: 100
About the Author
Brad Inwood is William Lampson Professor of Philosophy and Classics at Yale University. He is the author of numerous works, including: Ethics and Action in Early Stoicism (1985), The Poem of Empedocles (second edition 2001), Reading Seneca: Stoic Philosophy at Rome (2005), Seneca: Selected Philosophical Letters (2007), Ethics After Aristotle (2014), Stoicism: A Very Short Introduction (2018), and Later Stoicism 155 BC to 200 AD (Cambridge, 2022).
Also by Brad Inwood
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