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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Socrates

as presented by Plato

Socrates: 469 BC - 399 BC

from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/

Three primary sources [of knowledge about Socrates]: Aristophanes, Xenophon, and Plato...

Philosophers have usually privileged the account of Socrates given by their fellow philosopher, Plato. Plato was about twenty-five when Socrates was tried and executed, and had probably known the old man most of his life. It would have been hard for a boy of Plato’s social class, registered in the political district (deme) of Collytus within the city walls, to avoid Socrates. The extant sources agree that Socrates was often to be found where youths of the city spent their time. Further, Plato’s representation of individual Athenians has proved over time to correspond remarkably well to both archaeological and literary evidence: in his use of names and places, familial relations and friendship bonds, and even in his rough dating of events in almost all the authentic dialogues where Socrates is the dominant figure...

It does not follow, however, that Plato represented the views and methods of Socrates (or anyone, for that matter) as he recalled them, much less as they were originally uttered. There are a number of cautions and caveats that should be in place from the start.

(i) Plato may have shaped the character Socrates (or other characters) to serve his own purposes, whether philosophical or literary or both.

(ii) The dialogues representing Socrates as a youth and young man took place, if they took place at all, before Plato was born and when he was a small child.

(iii) One should be cautious even about the dramatic dates of Plato’s dialogues because they are calculated with reference to characters whom we know primarily, though not only, from the dialogues.

(iv) Exact dates should be treated with a measure of skepticism for numerical precision can be misleading. Even when a specific festival or other reference fixes the season or month of a dialogue, or birth of a character, one should imagine a margin of error.