Socrates states that he would be doing a greater injustice to his family by escaping.

He states that in escaping he would be going against everything he has lived for, and would thus not have remained true to himself or his family.

He states that by escaping he would only be confirming his own guilt and the

accusation that he was a bad influence to the youth of Athens, for one who breaks the law cannot have a positive influence on the youth.

Socrates explains that laws are akin to parents and play a critical role in shaping and improving the youth. A citizen is bound to the laws of the state as a child is bound to the parents.

Socrates anticipates Kant’s ethical maxims and states that since the laws exist as one entity, to break one would be the equivalent of breaking all.

The very predicament that Crito presents Socrates with, to obey or to disobey, the law is then to destroy the law. Rather than breaking the law, a just person tries to persuade the law in light of a higher standard of justice but in failing will still abide by the law.

Socrates states that having rarely left Athens in his seventy years, he has implicitly agreed to follow the law.

Thus, to escape and break the law would be equivalent to striking ones parents.

Finally Socrates states, a true philosopher does not run away or fear death, but should

welcome it as the inevitability of life. — ( Concluded)