Socratic dialogue

Socratic dialogue (Greek ?????????? ????? or ?????????? ????????), is a prose literary form developed in Greece at the turn of the fourth century BCE, preserved today in the dialogues of Plato and the Socratic works of Xenophon - either dramatic or narrative - in which characters discuss moral and philosophical problems.

Related Topics:
Greek - Greece - Fourth century BCE - Dialogue - Plato - Xenophon

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Most accurately, the term refers to works in which Socrates is a character, though Plato's Laws and Xenophon's Hiero are Socratic dialogues in which a wise man other than Socrates leads the discussion (the Athenian Stranger and Simonides, respectively).

Related Topics:
Socrates - Plato's ''Laws'' - Xenophon's ''Hiero'' - Simonides

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According to a fragment of Aristotle, the first author of Socratic dialogue was Alexamenes of Teos, but we do not know anything else about him, whether Socrates appeared in his works, or how accurate Aristotle was in his unfavorable judgement about him. In addition to Plato and Xenophon, Antisthenes, Aeschines of Sphettos, Phaedo, Eucleides of Megara, Theocritus, Tissaphernes and Aristotle all wrote Socratic dialogues, and Cicero wrote similar dialogues in Latin on philosophical and rhetorical themes, for example De re publica.

Related Topics:
Aristotle - Cicero - De re publica

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"A Socratic Dialogue can happen at any time between two or more people when they seek to answer a question" about something "answerable by our own effort of reflection and thinking" starting "from the concrete" asking "all sorts of questions" until "the details of the example are fleshed out" as "a kind of platform for reaching more general judgments" http://www.sfcp.org.uk/dialogue_on.htm.

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