Part A- Socrates In thinking of Socrates we must recognize that what we have is four secondhand sources depicting him. That of Plato, Xenophanes, Aristophanes, and Aristotle. All having radically different accounts on Socrates and his views. Out of all them we consider Plato’s to be the most possible account, even though we face a problem of different versions of Socrates. The existence and continual study of Socrates’ philosophy regardless of differing accounts is astonishing in itself since it survived not through the specific philosopher, but through other people. Which is a testament of the impact that a man, such as Socrates, can make. When we think of Plato, who is regarded as a father of western philosophy, we are quick to think of his major work The Republic, his student Aristotle, and his writing on Socrates. (We think of his writings on Socrates as mere footnotes in philosophical thought without examining them.) “Nothing comes from nothing,” Parmenides proudly claimed, and this philosophical doctrine applies to Plato’s thought. As a student of Socrates …show more content…
Though it is interesting and may prove itself philosophically very useful, its use would depend on the ability of being able to make sense of it. Plato’s theory of Forms (abstract universals) never really gets to the theory stage as throughout his works he unfortunately never provides his readers with a unified view on forms. Not even in The Republic which was meant as an address to Plato’s own thought. In books 5-10 he means to elucidate his theory, only to provide us with contradictory examples on what the Forms are. (Ridenour) Like Socrates with the elenchus, Plato does not gain greater knowledge with the