Does Socrates, In The Crito, Reject Civil Disobedience?

Topic 3 : Does Socrates, in the Crito, reject civil disobedience? If yes, show where. If no, explain what he does reject.

Crito tries to persuade Socrates to flee Athens to escape from the death penalty in the Crito. Instead of acquiescing into Crito’s persuasion, Socrates makes several arguments against leaving the city, namely because Socrates believes that one should never disobey the law. The belief that a state is the ultimate superior and disobedience destroys a state does make Socrates a staunch opponent of civil disobedience. Yet, it would not do justice to Socrates if we simply dub him as a potential advocate of authoritarianism, since he accepts a certain form of civil disobedience; Socrates believes that an individual can directly confront a state with moral persuasion as a way to effect its moral improvement.

In the passage, Socrates gives a following justification for why one must never disobey the law.
P1) Disobedience destroys the state (50b)
P2) ‘[The state] is to be honored more than your mother, your father, and all your ancestors, that it is more to be revered and more sacred’ (51b)
C) One must never disobey the law

These two premises that ultimately prescribe Socrates from disobeying the law indeed clarify why Socrates rejects civil disobedience. P2 reflects how highly Socrates thinks of the state; just as one must respect one’s parents, even more so must one respect one’s state and its laws. This is because Socrates believes that his being is exactly due to the existence of the state; the state has given him birth, nurtured him, and educated him (51d). Therefore, the state is the ultimate superior that a citizen must obey, according to