SOCRATES
AND
PLATO

Although he could read,¹ the Athenian philosopher Socrates (469?-399 B.C.E.) never wrote a word that has come down to us. He is known to us through three main sources:

• the philosophical dialogues -- some quite lengthy -- of his pupil, the Athenian philosopher Plato (circa 428-347 B.C.E.);
• an account by the Athenian soldier, historian and essayist Xenophon (430?-355? B.C.E.) of Socrates' last hours;
• a few satirical depictions in the plays of the Athenian comic dramatist Aristophanes (448?-385) B.C.E.. (These almost certainly make a mockery of Socrates' teachings without depicting them accurately.)

Consequently most of what we "know" about Socrates and his beliefs depends on the accuracy of Plato's accounts. And while it seems clear that Plato loved his old master, it is less clear that Plato's writings depict Socrates' teachings with accuracy. Modern scholars believe that Plato's earlier dialogues, most of them about Socrates' arrest, trial and death, are reasonably accurate. But they think that Plato's later dialogues involve larger and larger proportions of Plato's own interpretations and even inventions.

There are even some probable errors in the dialogues.

For example, in Phaedo, Plato's dialogue about Socrates' last hours in prison and his death, we are told that aged leader swallowed a dose of the poison hemlock. The taking of the drug and Socrates' gradual death from it is vividly shown. But medical people have pointed out that this account must be inaccurate. Had Socrates taken hemlock, he would have died a more horrible, agonizing death, in agonized convulsions. Something seems clearly awry.

For most purposes, however, we have no choice but to assume that it is probable that something like the teachings of Socrates as depicted in Plato's dialogues is what Socrates actually believed.

In this essay, when I refer to Socrates, I always mean Plato's Socrates, the Socrates in Plato's dialogues.

[To Be Continued and Revised]

Notes

¹Socrates is depicted by Plato as reading in one of his dialogues.

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Last modified: 9:46 AM 27/10/2002