Socratic dialogue

Part of a series on
Socrates
"I know that I know nothing" "The unexamined life is not worth living" Gadfly Trial of Socrates
Eponymous concepts
Socratic dialogue Socratic fallacy Socratic intellectualism Socratic irony Socratic method Socratic paradox Socratic problem Socratic questioning
Pupils
Plato Xenophon Aeschines Antisthenes Aristippus
Related topics
Academic skepticism Aristotelianism Bibliography Cultural depictions Cynicism Cyrenaics Megarians Platonism Stoicism The Clouds Virtue ethics
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Socratic dialogue (Ancient Greek: Σωκρατικὸς λόγος) is a genre of literary prose developed in Greece at the turn of the fourth century BC. The earliest ones are preserved in the works of Plato and Xenophon and all involve Socrates as the protagonist. 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 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.