As previously indicated, the dialogues are typically divided into three phases: early, middle and late.
The early dialogues portrayed an encounter between Socrates and an interlocutor who complacently assumes that he understands a common evaluative concept such as courage, piety, beauty, or justice.
For example, Euthyphro, in the dialogue that bears his name, denies that there is any impiety in prosecuting his father, but repeated questioning by Socrates shows that he cannot say what single thing all pious acts have in common by virtue of which they are rightly called pious.
One of Socrates primary conclusions regarded his actually "knowing" very little. Consequently in the dialogues of Plato, Socrates seeks but fails to find a philosophically defensible theory that would ground our use of normative terms.
These early dialogues include:
• Apology
• Charmides
• Crito
• Euthyphro
• Ion
• Laches
• Lesser Hipias
• Lysis
• Menexenus
• Protagoras
Premiddle or Transitional dialogues include:
• Euthydemus
• Gorgias
• Meno
