Both of the answers are correct to point out that the dialogues are fictitious. It is extremely unlikely any section of any length is a transcript of an actual conversation between Socrates and anyone.
Contents
Does Plato appear in his own dialogues?
Plato’s indirectness
He makes no appearance in Laws, and there are several dialogues (Sophist, Statesman, Timaeus) in which his role is small and peripheral, while some other figure dominates the conversation or even, as in the Timaeus and Critias, presents a long and elaborate, continuous discourse of their own.
Why did Plato prefer putting his messages in dialogues?
Plato tells us that he felt writing would inhibit the exchange of ideas and that people would become dependent on the written word as they would no longer have to remember what they had learned. We can thank Plato for much of what we know about Socrates.
Are Socrates dialogues real?
Schleiermacher maintained that the two dialogues Apology and Crito are purely Socratic. They were, therefore, accurate historical portrayals of the real man, and hence history and not Platonic philosophy at all.
How does Plato speak?
Plato was one of the devoted young followers of Socrates. The precise relationship between Plato and Socrates remains an area of contention among scholars. Plato never speaks in his own voice in his dialogues, and speaks as Socrates in all but the Laws.
Is Plato reliable?
Nonetheless, his earliest works are generally regarded as the most reliable of the ancient sources on Socrates, and the character Socrates that we know through these writings is considered to be one of the greatest of the ancient philosophers.
What is Plato’s dialogue?
Platonic dialogues
Strictly speaking, the term refers to works in which Socrates 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, respectively).
What is Plato best known for?
Plato’s most famous work is the Republic, which details a wise society run by a philosopher. He is also famous for his dialogues (early, middle, and late), which showcase his metaphysical theory of forms—something else he is well known for.
What is Plato’s real name?
Aristocles
It was claimed that Plato’s real name was Aristocles, and that ‘Plato’ was a nickname (roughly ‘the broad’) derived either from the width of his shoulders, the results of training for wrestling, or from the breadth of his style, or from the size of his forehead.
Who was Plato taught by?
teacher Socrates
The Athenian philosopher Plato (c. 428-347 B.C.) is one of the most important figures of the Ancient Greek world and the entire history of Western thought. In his written dialogues he conveyed and expanded on the ideas and techniques of his teacher Socrates.
Did Plato make up Socrates?
It’s essentially impossible to offer definitive proof on the matter, but it’s extremely unlikely that Socrates was merely a figment of Plato’s imagination. The primary evidence in this regard is the fact that multiple independent sources make reference to him in various ways.
Is Plato a philosopher or a leader?
It may come as a surprise, but Plato, the Greek philosopher, thought a great deal about leadership. The objective of today’s post is to sketch Plato’s leadership views as part of his thinking on political governance and to relate Platonic thinking to leadership today.
Does Socrates believe in God?
Socrates also believes in deity, but his conception is completely different from the typical Athenians. While to the Athenians gods are human-like and confused, Socrates believes god to be perfectly good and perfectly wise. His god is rationally moral. His god also has a purpose.
Why did Socrates hate the books?
Socrates believed that writing was not an effective means of communicating knowledge. To him, face-to-face communication was the only way one person could transmit knowledge to another. Oh the irony of having an argument against writing in a written text.
Why did Socrates never write?
Socrates, like many great ancient thinkers, never wrote anything down because he found writing to be inferior to dialogue as a method of inquiry. Everything we know about what he said, did, or thought comes to us from others.
What philosopher never wrote down a word?
Unlike other philosophers of his time and ours, Socrates never wrote anything down but was committed to living simply and to interrogating the everyday views and popular opinions of those in his home city of Athens.
What did Plato use to write?
Nobody knows what Plato wrote on because no originals survive. However, papyrus was the standard at the time of Plato. You can check out some examples here. Leather was also used for writing in his time, but parchment probably wasn’t popular until at least couple hundred years later.