One of the aspects of Platonic dialogues (which you might have noticed already, or this may be a bit new to you), one that I find very rewarding and even fascinating is the fact that there is so much being said. I won't even say between the lines, because it's right there in the lines, but typically the ones that we're not paying adequate attention to, because we think that they're just sort of there to advance the key arguments that we're interested in.
And the short dialogue, the Crito, is a prime example of this. I would say, just based on my own experience, that there's two main aspects of the work that most first-time, even second-time readers are going to focus on almost exclusively.
One of these, of course, is the interesting feature of the laws of Athens themselves coming in as characters and making accusations and arguments with Socrates. Now, how could you not be struck by that? It's a really cool idea, isn't it? And it kind of prefigures social contract theory, so people interested in political philosophy, focus in on that.
And then we have the entire question of whether Socrates should take the invitation that is being urged upon him by his friend Crito to leave Athens without permission, avoid his execution, and go somewhere else where he can live out a few more years being welcomed and celebrated.
There is more to this dialogue than that though. And so I'm gonna point out several interconnected features to you that you might've missed, or this might just be review for you, but it's always worth going back over these.
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