Introduction

Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the pivotal figure in the history of Ancient Greek and Western philosophy, along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle.

In his dialogues, Plato often used the character Socrates to explore philosophical problems. Whilst there is debate about the extent to which Socrates is a mouthpiece for Plato’s own views vs Plato recording the real views of Socrates¹, it is unlikely that Plato’s Socrates represents accurately the views of an individual figure at a single point in time.

I often have debates with friends about a variety of topics, from the philosophy of science to the nature of effective leadership and organisational structure, to name a few. I often find myself wanting to record these debates in some form and, given the ideas are often generated in debate, I think a dialogue format is often appropriate. That being said, sometimes, other formats are more appropriate, whether that be a monologue, article, or even a short quote.

Regardless of the format, it is useful to provide a name to the debating partner. At the same time, my intention is not to interview an individual about a topic, but rather to engage in a debate with them. Additionally, I may sometimes adjust the debate (including the specific positions taken by each side) to better illustrate a point or, more importantly, to better illustrate how an understand was reached.

Because of this, I do not think it is fair to name the debating partner: some may not wish everything they say to be published (a concern which I think is perfectly reasonable), and the views written may not be the ones they expressed. As such, I will refer to the debating partner as “Socrates” in the dialogues I write. As I think this is an important point, I will say it again: When I write within this section of my website that “Socrates” said something, I am not claiming that the real Socrates said it, but rather that in the process of debate, my debating partner provided that argument.

This extends to any “quotes” I provide in this section of my website. Many of these are quotations of no-one but myself. These are typically provided when I feel a debate resulted in one particularly neat epiphany or provides a small point I want to remind myself of in the future. These quotes will typically be attributed to “Socrates” as well.