Dear Socrates

Dear Socrates

Having returned from the turn of the Fourth Century B.C. to the turn of the Twenty-First A.D., Socrates has eagerly signed on as a Philosophy Now columnist so that he may continue to carry out his divinely-inspired dialogic mission.

Dear Socrates,

When you were imprisoned after your trial and awaiting the execution of your death sentence, your friend Crito visited you to inform you that arrangements had been made for you to escape into exile. He urged you to take advantage of the opportunity, but you refused. Do you now regret that you did not take Crito's advice?

Bill Walker, Essex

Dear Bill,

At first I dismissed your question. Have not Plato and Xenophon provided you with sufficient reasons for my having declined Crito's invitation? Even in the best of circumstances this life is but a pale shadow of reality, and there I was, a seventy-year-old man, with only decrepitude to look forward to. Besides, it is not easy to hit the road when you are that old, and I had the alternative of a quick and painless death.

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