Socrates’s Argument
P1. Harming somebody is always wrong.
P2. We harm somebody when we do not fulfill our agreements.
P3. We have entered into an agreement with the state: if we live in the state, the state will form us in the way that parents form us. In return, we must obey the state in the same way that we obey our parents.
P4. If Socrates flees to avoid his death, then he will not be obeying the state.
P5. If Socrates does not obey the state, then he is not fulfilling his agreement.
P6. If Socrates is not fulfilling his agreement with the state, then he is harming the state.
C7. Therefore, if Socrates flees to avoid his death, he is committing a wrong.
Questions
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According to Socrates, the state in some sense forms you. What do you think he means by that? Can a state really form us in the same way that a parent forms us?
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Socrates’s personification of the laws argues that a person has a choice when it comes to the laws. If people do not like the laws of a state, they can move somewhere else. How good is this argument? If you do not like the laws of the United States, should you just move to Canada? What if you do not like the laws of Minnesota? Should you just move to Iowa?
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Part of Socrates’s claim is that the agreement we enter into with the state is an implicit agreement. Is an implicit agreement good enough? Do we really implicitly agree to obey the laws when we do not move somewhere else?
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Is the state the kind of thing that can be harmed? Are there other kinds of abstract entities that can be harmed? Can corporations be harmed? What about the environment?
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What do you think Socrates might say if the law required him to harm another person? Henry David Thoreau famously had such an issue. The United States was engaged in a war with Mexico, and Thoreau did not want his money going to help continue the war, so he refused to pay his taxes. Is this a legitimate response?
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One suggestion scholars have made is that Socrates does not escape because he loves Athens too much to live anywhere else. Athens is his home, and he would rather die than go anywhere else. Do people still have this kind of attachment to their homes? Should they?