Socrates My Good Crito Analysis

Does the majority opinion matter? “Socrates: My good Crito, why should we care so much for what the majority think? Crito: You see, Socrates, that one must also pay attention to the opinion of the majority. Your present situation makes clear that the majority can inflict not the least but pretty well the greatest evils….”(Socrates 47) Socrates talks a great deal about this subject and suggests that we pay less attention to the majority opinion. Certainly Socrates must have believed that the majority opinion held some value, however I believe it holds a great weight as the majority opinion is able to inflict greater goods and greater evils. In this essay I will suggest that majority opinion is important to heed and often holds truth. The story begins with Socrates in jail and Crito, Socrates friend, telling him that he has devised a plan for his escape. Socrates refuses and this is incredibly troubling to Crito because people will believe that he chose not to help save the life of his friend because of the expense of an escape. This leads into an interesting conversation in which Socrates tells Crito not to worry about the opinion of the

This he is unwilling to do because he holds it in such high regards and believes that if people did not follow the laws it would cause the fall of Athens. Therefor by him not accepting his punishment he would consider himself one of the highest criminals. This is yet another paradigm of how important the opinion of the majority is because they are the ones who create the laws. By following the laws you are really following the opinion of the majority. Here we see that perhaps Socrates was inconsistent in his reasoning as he places such a great weight on the majority opinion through law. However, he may also believe the laws were divinely inspired by the gods and therefore would not be from the majority but from an expert opinion,