Plato's Crito - Virtue Before All - Book 21 of the Bucket List Book Adventure

Plato's Crito - Virtue Before All - Book 21 of the Bucket List Book Adventure

By: a.d. elliott |Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventure

Book number 21 of the Bucket List Book Adventure is complete. Let me tell you all about "Crito" by Plato. 

We are almost to the end of the Socrates saga. This chapter finds the great philosopher awaiting his execution in prison, following his trial in the book Apology.

Crito, a friend of the philosopher, sneaks into the prison with a plan to free Socrates, and it is here that we find Plato's profound moral conversation and the ultimate point of this book.

It is a virtue to love one's country and its laws. Even when those laws are unjust. And so, despite the injustice of the sentence, and even though EVERYONE gets help escaping, Socrates refuses to escape. For him, to escape would be to commit an act of injustice, one that violates both the laws of Athens and the principles of virtue. Even when wronged by the state, Socrates insists that doing wrong in return is never justified. For him, the moral life requires steadfast adherence to virtue, no matter the personal cost.

I was struck by Socrates’ unshakable moral inflexibility,  and his conviction that “it is never right to do wrong,” even when all logic and emotion urge otherwise. It reminds me of Joan Didion’s assertion that “to look for reasons is beside the point.” Socrates does not rationalize or excuse; he simply acts according to what is right.

Yet, when I think of Mencius, whose writings I recently finished, I can’t help but notice the difference in their approach to justice.

For Mencius, virtue comes from aligning oneself with the Mandate of Heaven, a moral authority higher than any government. He argued that rulers who act unjustly forfeit their legitimacy and that rebellion against tyranny may, in fact, be a moral duty. To Mencius, preserving virtue sometimes requires defying corrupt authority.

Socrates, however, accepts even unjust punishment as preferable to violating his civic duty. For him, breaking the law, even an unjust one, would corrode the soul and weaken the moral fabric of society.

Both men, then, place virtue at the center of human life. However, where Socrates seeks harmony through obedience to lawful order, Mencius seeks harmony through righteousness, even if it means rebelling against that lawful order. One grounds morality in structure; the other in conscience.

Both works challenge us to examine what virtue demands of us: obedience or resistance? And ultimately, who is the ultimate authority? Is it the State, Heaven, or something else entirely?

xoxo a.d. elliott

PS - Don't forget to check out my YouTube for this book here: https://youtu.be/ZX7XPK-MWPw

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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller based in Tontitown, Arkansas.

She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.

You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.

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