Plato’s Crito

Week 5: Doing right and doing wrong

Premise: One should never do wrong. 49a-49d

This one seems almost as tautological as the one we discussed in Week 3; surely what is right is more or less by definition what one ought to do, and what is wrong is what one ought not to do. How is Socrates considering this distinction, and what point is he trying to make?

The stretch from 49a to 49d is not a long one: what is the point of including this? Is it a basically tautological clarification of the point for the purpose of stapling down all the corners of the argument, or is Socrates introducing something subtler into the discourse here?

Socrates begins with the principle that one should do no wrong. This is presumably widely accepted.

Then Socrates draws the conclusion that one should never retaliate even for a wrong, that is, one should never cause harm to another even if the other has caused harm first. Does this follow?

Socrates helps the inference by inventing a term for returning harm for harm: antadikein. That term contains within it the term for doing wrong: adikein. So returning harm looks like a variety of wrongdoing just from the way the thought is expressed.

There are at least two possible responses:

1. Returning harm for harm is always wrong, but one that can be condoned in certain cases (perhaps as a lesser of two available wrongs).
2. Returning harm for harm is not always wrong.

Contemporary Greek culture would not have supported the idea that retaliation is always wrong. The Peloponnesian War exhibits multiple instances of retaliation. Socrates cautions Crito to be careful about agreeing with his principle that retaliation is always bad, reflecting his awareness that his principle is not common knowledge.

Later we will see that the Laws of Athens argue that retaliation against the state is inappropriate because the state (like parents and employers) stands in an asymmetrical relationship with the citizen. That principle is distinct from the one urged here, that retaliation is always wrong in every context.

If you’re reading along in Greek, cover 47d8-50a5.