Socrates shaped Plato's entire philosophical outlook and, as previously stated, through the dialogues Plato attempted to keep alive the Socratic spirit.
Plato's dialogues are typically divided into three sections: The Early Dialogues, The Middle Dialogues, and The Later Dialogues.
Plato's ability as a writer and the sophistication of his though is reflected in the Socratic dialogues. They consist of thirty-five dialogues and thirteen letters. Each of these has been traditionally attributed to Plato, though modern scholarship questions the legitimacy of some of these writings.
Plato's early dialogues presented Socrates discussing moral concerns and questions.
In the dialogues, Socrates led the conversation by progressively directing the exchange of discussion by the method of questions, also known as the Socratic method. By so doing, Socrates led his dialogue partner to develop his own ideas not only in the area of moral philosophy, but also in a host of other areas.
There was a sort of evolutionary quality in these dialogues in that personal morality gradually turns to the consideration of social and political theory. Plato, in his writing of the dialogues, broadened his interests and where possible presented his own ideas as an outgrowth of Socrates ideas.
He presented Socrates as one who thinks for himself and also as one who taught others to think for themselves as well.
In the early dialogues there is a common pattern.
Socrates talks to an interlocutor who thinks he knows the meaning of a term such as friendship, courage or piety. Socrates then interrogates him through Socratic questioning and proceeds to show the individual that they do not actually have a clear grasp of the concept though they thought they understood.
This particular process has become important for philosophy in general. It is the method still used to teach philosophy.
In the process, the teacher starts with an important concepts and then proceeds to bring to student to a realization of the problems, weaknesses and inadequacies in their own conception of the topic.
In the end of the teaching event, the student is to end up with a better grasp of the problem than he previously adhered to.
In addition, through the dialogues the reader is also drawn into the problem, dilemma or topic being confronted and hopefully the reader is also challenge to rethink his own conclusions on the matter.
Interestingly, after two thousand years we still puzzle about the same terms and concepts that were considered by Plato in the dialogues and the concerns addressed in the teachings of Socrates.
It is also important to note that Socrates endeavored not to tell the answer to the student, but primarily endeavored to clarify the problem in the mind of the student and ultimately to have the student develop his own thinking about the topic under consideration. In this sense indoctrination is avoided and authentic knowledge results.
