INTRODUCTION TO THE HUMANITIES: CRITOAndrew 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 ]

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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)