Socrates gives four reasons as to why he refuses Crito’s offer of escape. The first comes with the argument for the central moral principle of the dialogue, which is the idea that one should never do wrong. Socrates justifies this in the traditional Platonic dialogue form, having Crito agree that once corrupted a life is not worth living. Plato states that only a …show more content…
With Socrates explaining this obligation as “violence is a sin even against your parents,” (Plato, 1997b, §51c) it is easy to read as the idea that the son (slave) has no right to retaliate against the father (master), even if the father (master) has harmed them in the first instance, and has to right to destroy their father (master) to protect his own life. Thus, Socrates reason for refusing Crito is justified, because Socrates status as a loyal Athenian citizen leaves him with a political obligation to the Laws, even if this leads to him being obligated to a state which can freely harm him with no right to