Socratic dialogue

Socratic dialogue () is a genre of literary prose developed in Greece at the turn of the fourth century BC.  It is preserved in the works of Plato and Xenophon. The discussion of moral and philosophical problems between two or more characters in a dialogue is an illustration of one version of the Socratic method. The dialogues are either dramatic or narrative and Socrates is often the main participant.

Platonic dialogues
Most of the Socratic dialogues referred to today are those of Plato. Platonic dialogues defined the literary genre subsequent philosophers used.

Plato wrote approximately 30 dialogues, in most of which Socrates is the main character. 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). The protagonist of each dialogue, both in Plato's and Xenophon's work, usually is Socrates 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 Socratic method. In some dialogues Plato's main character is not Socrates but someone from outside of Athens. 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), 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.

 First Alcibiades
 Second Alcibiades
 Apology
 Charmides
 Clitophon
 Cratylus
 Critias
 Crito
 Epinomis
 Euthydemus

 Euthyphro
 Gorgias
 Hippias Major
 Hippias Minor
 Ion
 Laches
 Lysis
 Meno
 Parmenides
 Protagoras

 Phaedo
 Phaedrus
 Philebus
 Republic
 Sophist
 Statesman
 Symposium
 Theaetetus
 Timaeus

Other ancient authors
Alexamenus of Teos
According to a fragment of Aristotle, the first author of Socratic dialogue was Alexamenus of Teos, 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.
Xenophon
 Apology
 Memorabilia
 Oeconomicus
 Symposium
Aristotle
Aristotle himself is reputed to have written Socratic dialogues. No manuscripts, however, are extant.
Antisthenes
Aeschines of Sphettos
Phaedo of Elis
Euclid of Megara
Simon the Shoemaker
Simon's writings are considered the first Socratic dialogues.
Cicero
 De re publica a similar dialogue in Latin on philosophical and rhetorical themes.

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 many employ the philosophical style similar to Plato while substituting a different character to lead the discussion.

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

Contemporary dialogues
Owen Barfield
Barfield's Worlds Apart 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 in society.
Peter Kreeft
This academic philosopher 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, Aldous Huxley, and J. F. Kennedy. He also authored a book of Socratic logic.
Keith Buhler
Buhler is an academic philosopher who published a Socratic dialogue in which Seraphim Rose plays the socratic questioner. He dialogues with a group of theology students on the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura.
Gerd Achenbach and philosophical counseling
Achenbach has refreshed the socratic tradition with his own blend of philosophical counseling. So did Michel Weber with his 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
 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 whey take the Socratic dialogue approach to questions of families and life.

See also
 List of speakers in Plato's dialogues
 Socratici viri

Notes

References
 Jowett, B. (1911). The Dialogues of Plato: Translated into English, with analyses and Introductions Vol.I. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York

 
Category:Platonism
Category:Non-fiction genres