Socrates, the teacher of Plato, appears to the left
of the center of Raphael's fresco and is engaged in conversation
with Alciabiades, Xenophon, and possibly Alexander the Great.
Socrates is the central character in many of Plato's Dialogues.
The following material was written by Richard Hooker
and appears on the web page of Washington State University: www.wsu.edu/~dee/Greece/SOCRATES.HTM
"Socrates wrote nothing because he felt that
knowledge was a living, interactive thing. Socrates' method of
philosophical inquiry consisted in questioning people on the positions
they asserted and working them through questions into a contradiction,
thus proving to them that their original assertion was wrong.
Socrates himself never takes a position; in The Apology he radically
and skeptically claims to know nothing at all except that he knows
nothing. Socrates and Plato refer to this method of questioning
as elenchus , which means something like "cross-examination"
The Socratic elenchus eventually gave rise to dialectic, the idea
that truth needs to be pursued by modifying one's position through
questioning and conflict with opposing ideas. It is this idea
of the truth being pursued, rather than discovered, that characterizes
Socratic thought and much of our world view today. The Western
notion of dialectic is somewhat Socratic in nature in that it
is conceived of as an ongoing process. Although Socrates in The
Apology claims to have discovered no other truth than that he
knows no truth, the Socrates of Plato's other earlier dialogues
is of the opinion that truth is somehow attainable through this
process of elenchus .
The Athenians, with the exception of Plato, thought
of Socrates as a Sophist, a designation he seems to have bitterly
resented. He was, however, very similar in thought to the Sophists.
Like the Sophists, he was unconcerned with physical or metaphysical
questions; the issue of primary importance was ethics, living
a good life. He appeared to be a sophist because he seems to tear
down every ethical position he's confronted with; he never offers
alternatives after he's torn down other people's ideas. He doesn't
seem to be a radical skeptic, though. Scholars generally believe
that the Socratic paradox is actually Socratic rather than an
invention of Plato. The one positive statement that Socrates seems
to have made is a definition of virtue (aretéé):
"virtue is knowledge." If one knows the good, one will
always do the good. It follows, then, that anyone who does anything
wrong doesn't really know what the good is. This, for Socrates,
justifies tearing down people's moral positions, for if they have
the wrong ideas about virtue, morality, love, or any other ethical
idea, they can't be trusted to do the right thing.
He doesn't seem to be a radical skeptic, though.
Scholars generally believe that the Socratic paradox is actually
Socratic rather than an invention of Plato. The one positive statement
that Socrates seems to have made is a definition of virtue (aretéé):
"virtue is knowledge." If one knows the good, one will
always do the good. It follows, then, that anyone who does anything
wrong doesn't really know what the good is. This, for Socrates,
justifies tearing down people's moral positions, for if they have
the wrong ideas about virtue, morality, love, or any other ethical
idea, they can't be trusted to do the right thing."