Socratic dialogue () is a genre of

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, ...

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

developed in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

at the turn of the fourth century BC. The earliest ones are preserved in the works of

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

and

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

and all involve

Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...

as the

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

. These dialogues, and subsequent ones in the genre, present a discussion of moral and philosophical problems between two or more individuals illustrating the application of the

Socratic method The Socratic method (also known as the method of Elenchus or Socratic debate) is a form of argumentative dialogue between individuals based on asking and answering questions. Socratic dialogues feature in many of the works of the ancient Greek ...

. The dialogues may be either dramatic or narrative. While Socrates is often the main participant, his presence in the dialogue is not essential to the genre.

Platonic dialogues

Most of the Socratic dialogues referred to today are those of

. Platonic dialogues defined the literary genre subsequent philosophers used. Plato wrote approximately 35 dialogues, in most of which Socrates is the main character. The protagonist of each dialogue, both in Plato's and Xenophon's work, usually is

who by means of a kind of interrogation tries to find out more about the other person's understanding of moral issues. In the dialogues Socrates presents himself as a simple man who confesses that he has little knowledge. With this ironic approach he manages to confuse the other who boasts that he is an expert in the domain they discuss. The outcome of the dialogue is that Socrates demonstrates that the other person's views are inconsistent. In this way Socrates tries to show the way to real wisdom. One of his most famous statements in that regard is "The unexamined life is not worth living." This philosophical questioning is known as the

. Strictly speaking, the term ''Socratic dialogue'' refers to works in which

is a character. As a genre, however, other texts are included; 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 Simonides of Ceos (; ; c. 556 – 468 BC) was a Greek lyric poet, born in Ioulis on Kea (island), Ceos. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of the nine lyric poets esteemed by them as worthy of criti ...

, respectively). In some dialogues, Plato's main character is not Socrates but someone from outside of

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. In Xenophon's ''Hiero'' a certain ''Simonides'' plays this role when Socrates is not the protagonist. Generally, the works which are most often assigned to Plato's early years are all considered to be Socratic dialogues (written from 399 to 387). Many of his middle dialogues (written from 387 to 361, after the establishment of his

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

), and later dialogues (written in the period between 361 and his death in 347) incorporate Socrates' character and are often included here as well. However, this interpretation of the corpus is not universally accepted. The time that Plato began to write his works and the date of composition of his last work are not known and what adds to the complexity is that even the ancient sources do not know the order of the works or the dialogues. The complete list of the thirty-five Platonic dialogues that have been traditionally identified as authentic, as given in

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek ph ...

, is included below in alphabetical order. The authenticity of some of these dialogues has been questioned by some modern scholarship. * '' First Alcibiades'' * '' Second Alcibiades'' * ''

Apology Apology, The Apology, apologize/apologise, apologist, apologetics, or apologetic may refer to: Common uses * Apology (act), an expression of remorse or regret * Apologia, a formal defense of an opinion, position, or action Arts, entertainment ...

'' * ''Charmides'' * ''Clitophon'' * '' Cratylus'' * ''

Critias Critias (; , ''Kritias''; – 403 BC) was an ancient Athenian poet, philosopher and political leader. He is known today for being a student of Socrates, a writer of some regard, and for becoming the leader of the Thirty Tyrants, who ruled Athens ...

'' * '' Crito'' * '' Epinomis'' * '' Euthydemus'' * ''

Euthyphro ''Euthyphro'' (; ), is a philosophical work by Plato written in the form of a Socratic dialogue set during the weeks before the trial of Socrates in 399 BC. In the dialogue, Socrates and Euthyphro attempt to establish a definition of '' piet ...

'' * '' Gorgias'' * ''

Hipparchus Hipparchus (; , ; BC) was a Ancient Greek astronomy, Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equinoxes. Hippar ...

'' * '' Hippias Major'' * '' Hippias Minor'' * '' Ion'' * '' Laches'' * ''

Laws Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a Socia ...

'' * '' Lysis'' * '' Menexenus'' * '' Meno'' * ''

Minos Main injector neutrino oscillation search (MINOS) was a particle physics experiment designed to study the phenomena of neutrino oscillations, first discovered by a Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) experiment in 1998. Neutrinos produced by the NuMI ...

'' * ''

Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (; ; fl. late sixth or early fifth century BC) was a Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic ancient Greece, Greek philosopher from Velia, Elea in Magna Graecia (Southern Italy). Parmenides was born in the Greek colony of Veli ...

'' * '' Protagoras'' * '' Phaedo'' * '' Phaedrus'' * '' Philebus'' * ''

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

'' * '' Rival Lovers'' * ''

Sophist A sophist () was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics and mathematics. They taught ''arete'', "virtue" or "excellen ...

'' * '' Statesman'' * '' Symposium'' * '' Theaetetus'' * '' Theages'' * '' Timaeus''

Other ancient authors

Authors of extant dialogues

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

, author of '' Deipnosophistae'' *

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

, author of several dialogues, including '' De re publica,'' '' De finibus bonorum et malorum'', '' Tusculanae Disputationes'', '' De Natura Deorum'', '' De Divinatione'', '' De fato'', '' Academica'', and the now-lost '' Hortensius''. *

, author of several dialogues, including ''

'', ''

Memorabilia A souvenir (French language, French for 'a remembrance or memory'), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memory, memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collecte ...

'', '' Oeconomicus'', and '' Symposium''

Authors whose dialogues are lost

* Simon the Shoemaker – According to

he was the first author of a Socratic dialogue. * Alexamenus of Teos – According to a fragment of

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

, he was the first author of a Socratic dialogue, but we do not know anything else about him, whether Socrates appeared in his works, or how accurate Aristotle was in his antagonistic judgement about him. * Aeschines of Sphettos * Antisthenes * Aristippus *

Phaedo of Elis Phaedo of Elis (; also, ''Phaedon''; , ''gen''.: Φαίδωνος; fl. 4th century BCE) was a Greek philosopher. A native of Elis, he was captured in war as a boy and sold into slavery. He subsequently came into contact with Socrates at A ...

* Euclid of Megara *

Favorinus Favorinus (c. 80 – c. 160 AD) was a Roman sophist and skeptic philosopher who flourished during the reign of Hadrian and the Second Sophistic. Early life He was of Gaulish ancestry, born in Arelate (Arles). He received a refined educa ...

Medieval and early modern dialogues

Socratic dialogue remained a popular format for expressing arguments and drawing literary portraits of those who espouse them. Some of these dialogues employ Socrates as a character, but most simply employ the philosophical style similar to Plato while substituting a different character to lead the discussion. *

Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480–524 AD), was a Roman Roman Senate, senator, Roman consul, consul, ''magister officiorum'', polymath, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middl ...

** Boethius' most famous book ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' is a Socratic dialogue in which Lady Philosophy interrogates Boethius. * St. Augustine ** St. Augustine's '' Confessions'' has been called a Socratic dialogue between St. Augustine the author and St. Augustine the narrator. * Anselm of Canterbury ** Anselm's '' Cur Deus Homo'' is a Socratic dialogue between Anselm and a monk named Boso. *

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

** Galilei's '' Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems'' compares the Copernican model of the universe with the Aristotelian. * Matteo Ricci ** Ricci's '' The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven'' (天主實義) is a Socratic dialogue between Ricci and a Chinese scholar, where Ricci argues that

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

and

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...

are not opposed to each other. * Johann Joseph Fux ** ''Gradus ad Parnassum'' (1725), a non-Socratic dialogue on species counterpoint. The conversation is between Aloysius, who represents the compositional style of Palestrina, and his student, Josephus. *

George Berkeley George Berkeley ( ; 12 March 168514 January 1753), known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland), was an Anglo-Irish philosopher, writer, and clergyman who is regarded as the founder of "immaterialism", a philos ...

** Berkeley's '' Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous'' is a Socratic dialogue between two university students named Philonous and Hylas, where Philonous tries to convince Hylas that idealism makes more sense than materialism. *

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...

** Hume's '' Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion'' is a Socratic dialogue in which three philosophers discuss arguments for the existence of God.

Modern dialogues

* Imre Lakatos ** Proofs and Refutations is a 1976 book on the logic of discovery and progress in mathematics. It is written as a series of Socratic dialogues between a group of students who debate the proof of the

Euler characteristic In mathematics, and more specifically in algebraic topology and polyhedral combinatorics, the Euler characteristic (or Euler number, or Euler–Poincaré characteristic) is a topological invariant, a number that describes a topological space's ...

for the

polyhedron In geometry, a polyhedron (: polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional figure with flat polygonal Face (geometry), faces, straight Edge (geometry), edges and sharp corners or Vertex (geometry), vertices. The term "polyhedron" may refer ...

. *

Owen Barfield Arthur Owen Barfield (9 November 1898 – 14 December 1997) was an English philosopher, author, poet, critic, and member of the Inklings. Life Barfield was born in London, to Elizabeth (née Shoults; 1860–1940) and Arthur Edward Barfield (186 ...

** Barfield's ''Worlds'' is a dialogue in the Socratic tradition analyzing the problem of specialization in modern society and universities. * André Gide ** Gide's Corydon is a series of 4 Socratic dialogues which aims to convince the reader of the normality and utility of

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

in society. *

Jane Jacobs Jane Isabel Jacobs (''née'' Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book ''The Death and Life of Great American Ci ...

** '' Systems of Survival'' is a dialogue about two fundamental and distinct ethical systems (or syndromes as she calls them): that of the Guardian and that of Commerce. She argues that these supply direction for the conduct of human life within societies, and understanding the tension between them can help us with public policy and personal choices. * Peter Kreeft ** This academic

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

has published a series of Socratic dialogues in which Socrates questions famous thinkers from the distant and near past. The first of the series was ''Between Heaven and Hell'', a dialogue between

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the ...

, and John F. Kennedy. He also authored a book of Socratic logic. * Gerd Achenbach and philosophical counseling ** Achenbach has refreshed the socratic tradition with his own blend of philosophical counseling, as has Michel Weber with hi
Chromatiques Center
in Belgium. * Ian Thomas Malone ** Malone has published a series of contemporary Socratic dialogues titled ''Five College Dialogues''. ''Five College Dialogues'' is intended to be a comedic resource for college students with a graduate student named "George Tecce" taking the role of Socrates. * Robin Skynner and

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and Television presenter, presenter. Emerging from the Footlights, Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinbur ...

** In the 1980s and 1990s a British psychologist and the well-known comedian collaborated on two books, '' Families and How to Survive Them'' (1984) and '' Life and How to Survive It'' (1993), in which they take the Socratic dialogue approach to questions of families and life. * David Lewis and Stephanie Lewis ** Philosopher David Lewis and his wife Stephanie wrote a metaphysical dialogue on the subject of

hole A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid Body (physics), body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in m ...

s between two interlocuters, ''Argle'' and ''Bargle'', in 1970.Lewis, David K.

. ''Australasian Journal of Philosophy'', 48(2). (1970).

Notes

References

* Jowett, B. (1892).
The Dialogues of Plato translated into English with Analyses and Introductions by B. Jowett, M.A. in Five Volumes
'. 3rd ed. revised and corrected. (Oxford University Press), via

Liberty Fund Liberty Fund, Inc. is an American nonprofit foundation headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, that promotes the libertarian views of its founder, Pierre F. Goodrich, through publishing, conferences, and educational resources. The operating mandat ...

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