플라톤의 『크리톤』에서 설득과 공감

Abstract

Up to now, in reading the Crito, we have mostly been preoccupied with some classical and abstruse problems, such as that of solving its apparent contradiction to the Apology of Socrates. But as a classical locus where the encounter between philosophy and politics in Plato’s Socrates took place and became problematic probably for the first time in Platonic corpus, the Crito poses us a problem in a much more fundamental level: it brings up for our reflection a point of communication, more specifically, one of persuasion and sympathy, e.g. a question of how self-conviction and open conversation can coexist with each other among us who, under the circumstances of multiple values coexisting and competing, are asked to be democratic. With this in mind, this article purports to illuminate and examine the dialogue Crito three-dimensionally, focussing on ‘persuasion’ as a keyword. First, I present and elucidate my observation that there are different levels among the several discourses which comprise the Crito (section 2). And, showing that ‘persuasion’ is the keyword which permeates all those discourses presented in different levels, I examine, focussing on the concepts of ‘obedience’ and ‘agreement,’ what influence persuasion-words exercise on the setting of the status of each discourse and interrelation thereof and how thereby they embody the unified message of the whole dialogue (section 3 and 4). And then, observing that the usages of persuasion-words end up with defining the setting of three main discourses as ‘a competition between persuasions,’ I make notice of the process how the new theme, i.e. the persuasion performed by and between an individual and his country, becomes problematic and eminent in this dialogue (section 5). Finally, noticing that the persuasion of the personified Laws is both that directed against Crito and that against Socrates himself, which means a sort of self-persuasion, I examine the characteristic features and implications of Socratic persuasion (section 6). One main focus which this article consistently adheres to is the tension between contents and forms of discourses: the essence and key of the philosophical examination and practice on persuasion and sympathy is paying a due attention not only to the contents of discourses but also to their forms and contexts. Theoretically, through such discussions this article ultimately purports to attempt the unified understanding of the Crito revealing the limitations of the interpretation after the manner of R. Weiss; practically, it searches for the compatibility between self-conviction/persuasion and open conversation and its model for us who have urgent tasks of improving our communication, i.e. persuasion and sympathy.