Explain whether we should accept Socrates’s argument to stay in prison, rejecting Crito’s proposal to escape and live. Does Socrates provide a sound argument for fulfilling his social contract with the Laws of Athens? Or, does Socrates have a greater obligation to preserve his own life through escaping?

Answer:

Yes. Socrates was right n taking a decision to stay in prison itself. If he escaped, he would have put Crito's and his other friends who helped Socrates in escaping from prison, all will be punished and driven into exile or lose their property and deprived of citizenship. So Socrates was absolutely correct in taking such a decision. He will never put his friends' in trouble.

Yes, Socrates gives a sound justification for not agreeing with Crito's plan to escape form prison. He considered it as wrong to escape from the prison as it is against the law of Athens. To commit a wrong doing is bad in all conditions. None of the ill treatments from an authority or anyone cannot be justified by another ill-treatment. The social contract between a citizen and a state doesn't allow a citizen to break the laws of the state and he is supposed to abide by the decisions of its courts that make possible a well-ordered society in which people can live at peace with one another.

If Socrates agreed to Crito's plan of eloping to a foreign country, then he will be breaking his social contract with the state. He never preferred to preserve his own life by breaking the state's laws. His choice of living under the laws of the city was free and deliberate. He considered it as wrong to disobey the decisions of the court. Escaping from prison would be a dishonorable act; it would be insincerity from his part towards the state. Then he will become the enemy of all honest citizens. That was not acceptable for him.