Sophocies’ Oedipus Tyrannus

In Plato’s Crito, Crito offers several arguments to persuade Socrates to avail of his friends’ help to escape imprisonment. On p. 22 of the Unit Reader, Crito offers one of his first arguments: ‘if you die I shall not only lose a friend who can never be replaced, but there is another evil: people who do not know you and me will believe that I might have saved you … but that I did not care.’ Socrates refuses Crito’s offer of help and rejects his arguments, even though he knows that staying in Athens will bring about his death.
With detailed reference to the text, give at least one example of Socrates’ reasoning against Crito’s proposal of help, and explain Socrates’ argument.

focus on Crito’s full argument (pp. 22-3 Unit Reader). Crito offers further reasoning at this point in the text in order to persuade Socrates to escape from prison, ranging from allaying Socrates’ fears that his friends will get into trouble for helping him (p. 22), to arguing that Socrates will be ‘betraying’ his children if he allows his enemies to destroy him (pp. 22-3). What are Socrates’ answers to these particular points made by Crito? How do Socrates’ answers relate to his beliefs on living ‘not life, but a good life’ (p. 25)? Students might like to consider what Socrates means by living the ‘good life’ and how this is connected to what he says about the Athenian State, the law, and citizenship (pp. 27-9), and how all of this influences his reasoning against Crito’s proposal of help.