Plato’s Crito

Week 2: Greek philosophy prior to Socrates

Greek philosophy began in Ionia, the traditional homeland of Homer on the west coast of present-day Turkey. The earliest Ionian philosopher, Thales, lived from about 624 to 548 B.C., or about 200 years before Plato. Thales is reported by later writers to have made discoveries in geometry and in astronomy. Unlike previous writers who attributed physical events to the actions of gods (e.g., a storm at sea showing the anger of Poseidon), Thales looked for an underlying material explanation. He theorized that all matter was (in some sense) originally or basically water, and that physical phenomena could be explained by the action and changes of water. This may sound peculiar, but consider that Thales’ hometown, Miletus, was near the mouth of the Meander River, which was silting up in ancient times. Thales and his contemporaries could observe (what appeared to be) water turning into earth. Thales’ speculations were developed by other Milesian thinkers who proposed alternative material explanations. This “physiological” school was disrupted when Miletus fell under Persian rule around 547 B.C.

A younger contemporary of Thales was Pythagoras, born on the island of Samos, which is near Miletus. In mid-life, Pythagoras moved to Croton, a Greek colony on the instep of Italy, where he founded a school and developed theories that included metempsychosis (souls are immortal and move to new bodies at death) and advances in mathematics (including the Pythagorean Theorem). Pythagoras is credited with the idea that numbers and mathematical proportions were important principles for understanding the physical world. He is said to have been the first to call himself a “philosopher” or lover of wisdom.

Parmenides, who lived around 515-450 B.C., came from Elea in southern Italy. He was notorious for the argument that physical changes are illusory. His argument was conceptual and even grammatical. If it is suggested that some object comes to be, then we must say that at some previous time that object did not exist. But there are no objects that do not exist. Similarly, if we say that some object has been destroyed, then we must say that the object no longer exists, but again there can be no objects that do not exist. Parmenides extended his argument to the case of change. If it is suggested that some object has heated up (changed from cold to hot), then we must say that at some previous time the object was not hot. Parmenides argued that this was another case of impossible non-being. Parmenides’ student Zeno developed “paradoxes” to support the theory that change and even motion were impossible. The most famous paradox argues that the famously athletic Achilles can never catch a notoriously slow tortoise if the tortoise has a head start. By the time Achilles runs to the place where the tortoise started, the tortoise has moved on. By the time Achilles runs to that second location, the tortoise has moved on again, and so on to infinity.

Empedocles was a philosopher from Akragas in Sicily who lived from about 494 to 434 B.C. He argued that changes in the physical world could be explained by the action and changing combinations of four basic elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Responding to the challenge of Parmenides that change cannot really occur, Empedocles responded that the fundamental building blocks of the physical world (the four elements) do not come to be and are not destroyed.

Anaxagoras was a contemporary of Empedocles. He was born in Clazomenae in Ionia but moved to Athens where he taught for many years. Like the other “physiologists,” Anaxagoras was interested in the material basis for changes in the world. He speculated that all the different materials in the world were distributed everywhere in tiny bits or “seeds.” When an object appears to change (e.g. when an animal eats grass and grows) nothing has really come to be and nothing has been destroyed, rather, the bits of flesh and bone that were already present in the grass become more apparent. Anaxagoras suggested that activity of the bits or seeds was governed by a universal “mind.” He also made the radical suggestion that the sun was not divine, but rather was a large burning stone. He was charged with impiety for this last theory and had to leave Athens.

As indicated above, Greek philosophy developed largely around the periphery of the Greek world, in Ionia (modern Turkey) in the east and in Italy and Sicily in the west. Most of the prominent figures were interested in questions about physical change, including whether such change was possible.

Towards the end of the pre-Socratic period, a new group of thinkers arose called Sophists who concentrated on teaching rhetoric, or the art of persuasion. The skill of public speaking was important in Athens as it moved toward a democratic form of government, where decisions were made in public meetings.

Athenians were skeptical of materialist theories, as evidenced by the prosecution of Anaxagoras. They were also skeptical of Sophists. Two prominent Sophists, Gorgias and Protagoras, visited Athens, offering what appealed to some as keys to political influence through persuasive speech. But the reaction of many Athenians is perhaps reflected in Plato’s dialogue (the Protagoras) in which Socrates asks a young person, “Wouldn’t a man like you be ashamed to face your fellow countrymen as a Sophist?” The young man answers, “If I am to speak my mind, I certainly should.” One thing that made Sophists both suspect and fascinating was their boast that they could teach their students to “make the weaker argument appear the stronger,” or in other words to win arguments through trickery even if logic and morality were on the other side.

Socrates was a younger contemporary of Anaxagoras. He left no written works, so what we know about him comes chiefly from the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the playwright Aristophanes, all of whose portraits are interestingly different.

In Aristophanes’ play The Clouds, Socrates is depicted as a ridiculous figure of a physiological philosopher, studying the heavenly bodies from a basket suspended from the ceiling. The play was satire, but there is corroborating evidence in Plato’s Phaedo, where Socrates recounts that as a young man he was much interested in the works of the physiological philosophers. Socrates says he was particularly interested in the idea that the physical world was organized by “mind” as Anaxagoras had taught, because he thought that a universal mind might explain why the world is as it is and what is the best life to pursue in that world. However, he was disappointed when he found that Anaxagoras did not follow up his account of mind in any interesting way. In other Platonic dialogues, Socrates is shown as challenging Sophist teachers for their pursuit of rhetorical success without regard to what is morally right.

Socrates (as represented by Plato) marks a significant change in the focus of Greek philosophy. Turning away from physical explanations of change and away from logical and mathematical puzzles, Socrates was focused on moral issues, in particular on the definition of moral concepts like courage, piety, and justice. Plato shared this interest, which is why he made Socrates the main character in most of his dialogues.

This very quick background sets the stage for our examination of the Crito, in which Socrates, condemned to death by an Athenian court, is offered an opportunity to escape (as Anaxagoras did), though escape would be contrary to the laws.

If you’re reading along in Greek, cover 44d1-46a8.