This does not mean that in these dialogues Plato is not shaping his material or that he is merely writing down, word-for-word, conversations he heard. He has made the decision to let Socrates speak for himself in this work and to refrain from offering any of his own reflections on the justice or injustice of the charges against his teacher. Of the two authors, Plato's account is generally given more attention by scholars because he, unlike Xenophon, actually attended the one-day trial of Socrates in Athens in 399 B.C.E. Plato also said we have three basic things: will, reason, and appetite. This is the Socrates we find in Laches, Euthyphro, and Charmides—but not in Phaedo, Phaedrus, Philebus, or Republic. to formally answer the charges brought against him by Meletus and other Most of what we think we know about He questioned everything because he wanted to know the truth. Plato (437-347) was Socrates’ prized student. Plato is said to be one of the greatest philosophers who ever lived. Socrates spent much of his time conversing about different philosophical ideas with people in Athens. in that government by his mother's uncle, Critias, and a lesser role 4. Socrates in his own defense at his 399 trial. For as Socrates says, the question he's asking on this occasion is hardly a trivial, abstract issue that doesn't concern him. Anthony Beavers and One of the primary differences between Plato and Socrates is that Plato gave a lot of importance to the soul of the human being than the body. Socrates also had a keen interest in knowledge and value theories. The Apology is presented as the speech given by All we can reasonably suppose is that here, if anywhere, Plato is re-creating the give-and-take of Socratic conversation, conveying a sense of the methods Socrates used and the assumptions that guided him when he challenged others to defend their ethical ideas and their way of life. dialogues (written from 387 to 361, after the establishment of his Furthermore, the portrait of Socrates that results from this hypothesis is not coherent. is Euthyphro: Yes.) Plato was not keen on individual freedom as he proposed and sought quite a restrictive society where a class of individuals is held in high esteem. He valued freedom and ensured he spoke concisely and precisely about it. Socrates lived from 470-399 B.C.E. During their brief hold on In other dialogues in which he plays a major role, however, Socrates does offer systematic answers to such questions. is especially important to our understanding of the trial of Socrates These pieces were named ??? As in most other Platonic dialogues the main character is Socrates. by his mother's brother, Charmides. He was also the first philosopher to write systematically on subjects of philosophical matters. A defense of Socrates that portrayed him as an innocuous preacher of moral pieties would have left us wondering why he was sentenced to death, and indeed why anyone bothered to indict him in the first place. an generally given more attention by scholars because he, unlike Xenophon, But Socrates is painfully aware that his insights into these matters leave many of the most important ethical questions unanswered. Plato thought there were two worlds. the Apology, and the Crito. Plato was the founder of the Academy in Athens. According to some scholars, his philosophical skills made him far better able than Xenophon was to understand Socrates and therefore more valuable a source of information about him. For Socrates, anything true is good. The Relationship Between Socrates and Plato. Because of Plato's obviously high regard In Books II–X of Republic, for example, he proposes an elaborate answer to the question, “What is justice?,” and in doing so he also defends his view of the ideal society, the condition of the human soul, the nature of reality, and the power of art, among many other topics. knowledge of the trial, reducing any incentive he might have had to On the contrary, he says, he devotes his life to one question only: how he and others can become good human beings, or as good as possible. and Our wrestler believed in the pre-existence and immortality of the soul, holding that life is nothing more than the imprisonment of the soul in a body. The academy of Athens was the first school of philosophy. Socrates has his teachings centered primarily around epistemology and ethics while Plato was quite concerned with literature, education, society, love, friendship, rhetoric, arts, etc. The method employed by Socrates, in other words, is a strategy for showing that the interlocutor’s several answers do not fit together as a group, thus revealing to the interlocutor his own poor grasp of the concepts under discussion. During their brief hold on power, the oligarchy practiced widespread executions of political opponents and confiscated the property of wealthy Athenians.). firsthand 361 ?™t write anything himself, we have information about him and his beliefs through the writings of Plato. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Plato and Socrates are two philosophers that showed differences between them when it comes to their philosophical concepts and thought. Accordingly, the dialogues of Plato that adhere most closely to what he heard from Socrates are those in which the interlocutor called Socrates searches, without apparent success, for answers to questions about the nature of the ethical virtues and other practical topics—works such as Laches, Euthyphro, and Charmides. Euthyphro is an imagined dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro about piety--Socrates stood charged with impiety--as Socrates prepared to enter the Royal Stoa to formally answer the charges brought against him by Meletus and other accusers. from a student of his over forty years his junior, Plato. He also believed that everything is characterized by a virtue that has a direct relationship with the performance of its function. young Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher had most of his teachings and philosophies written and recorded by writers after his death which included his students Plato and Xenophon. Here are 5 differences between these two schools of thought that have since ruled humans. broad groups: the "Socratic" dialogues (written from 399 to 387), the after Christopher Planeaux, "The Life of Plato", Links to biography of Socrates: “Socratic method” has now come into general usage as a name for any educational strategy that involves cross-examination of students by their teacher. At the same time, we can explain why Plato uses the literary character of Socrates in many of his writings to present ideas that go well beyond anything that the historical Socrates said or believed. He wrote such works as the Republic, The Apology, Phaedo, and Timacus. But although the new answers proposed to Socrates’ principal question avoid the errors revealed in the preceding cross-examination, fresh difficulties are uncovered, and in the end the “ignorance” of Socrates is revealed as a kind of wisdom, whereas the interlocutors are implicitly criticized for failing to recognize their ignorance. the last days of Socrates come from the earliest "Socratic" period: Euthyphro, But, in the Republic, he puts into the mouth of its principal interlocutor, “Socrates,” an observation about the corrosive power that philosophy can have when it takes hold at too early an age. They also note that at Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Plato (l. c. 428-348 BCE) was his most famous student and would teach Aristotle (l. 384-322 BCE) who would then tutor Alexander the Great (l. 356-323 BCE). for his ?™t know any better. Socrates He lived from 427-347 B.C.E in Athens Greece. We cannot know, and it is implausible to suppose, that in these dialogues of unsuccessful search there is a pure rendering of what the historical Socrates said, with no admixture of Platonic interpretation or supplement. However, the method used by Socrates in the conversations re-created by Plato follows a more specific pattern: Socrates describes himself not as a teacher but as an ignorant inquirer, and the series of questions he asks are designed to show that the principal question he raises (for example, “What is piety?”) is one to which his interlocutor has no adequate answer. could have secured acquittal had he only been willing to make certain On the contrary, he has some ethical convictions about which he is completely confident. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Socrates: So the very same actions are loved by some gods and hated by others? Socrates is one of the principal characters of Aristophanes' comedy, Clouds; and Xenophon, a historian and military leader, wrote, like Plato, both an Apology of Socrates (an account of Socrates' trial) and other works in which Socrates appears as a principal speaker. What Aristotle tells his readers is that Socrates asked questions but gave no replies, because he lacked knowledge; that he sought definitions of the virtues; and that he was occupied with ethical matters and not with questions about the natural world. a piece in which Socrates discussed his obligation to accept his Plato's metaphysics and epistemology