Socrates,Crito, and emigration from South Africa

This article uses Plato’s Crito as a lens through which to consider the question of whether a South African citizen should emigrate from South Africa. While this question is not exactly parallel to that of whether the condemned Socrates should flee Athens, it has much more to do with justice than is commonly thought. For in order for one to know whether one has an overall duty to remain in or leave South Africa, one must determine what one owes to one’s country and compatriots, one’s community, one’s family, and oneself.