Sokratikoi logoi

Sokratikoi logoi (literally: " Socratean expressions", often used as a synonym to Socratic dialogues), is a prose literary form developed in Greece at the turn of the fourth century BCE, preserved today in the dialogues of Plato and the Socratic works of Xenophon – either dramatic or narrative – in which characters discuss moral and philosophical problems.

Most accurately, the term refers to works in which Socrates is a character, though Plato's Laws and Xenophon's Hiero are Sokratikoi logoi in which a wise man other than Socrates leads the discussion (the Athenian Stranger and Simonides, respectively).

According to a fragment of Aristotle, the first author of Sokratikoi logoi was Alexamenes of Teos, but we do not know anything else about him, whether Socrates appeared in his works, or how accurate Aristotle was in his unfavorable judgement about him. In addition to Plato and Xenophon, Antisthenes, Aeschines of Sphettos, Phaedo, Eucleides of Megara, Theocritus, Tissaphernes and Aristotle all wrote Sokratikoi logoi, and Cicero wrote similar dialogues in Latin on philosophical and rhetorical themes, for example De re publica.

See also

• Socratic debate
• maieutics

External links

• Project Gutenberg: Works by Plato
• Project Gutenberg: Works by Xenophon (includes some Socratic works)
• Project Gutenberg: Works by Cicero (includes some works in the "Socratic dialogue" format)