The following research compares and contrasts three essays: The Crito, by Plato; Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau; and Letter from Birmingham Jail, by Martin Luther King Jr. Socrates, Thoreau and King each addressed issues of freedom, human rights, and individual rights vs. state rights. Each philosopher was accused of having transgressed certain established codes set up by the state.

Socrates was imprisoned on charges of corrupting youth and believing in gods other than the state’s divinities. In his dialogues with Crito, he explores the nature of the ideal state and the individual in opposition to the goals established by the higher authorities. Plato has come to him in prison to urge him to escape, but Socrates’ final resolve is not to challenge an authority which he has submitted to by virtue of …