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No, there's pretty good evidence that Socrates did exist, though there is debate about what he actually believed and taught, since in Plato's later dialogues th
by rck 3y ago
No, there's pretty good evidence that Socrates did exist, though there is debate about what he actually believed and taught, since in Plato's later dialogues the character of Socrates typically was advancing Plato's position. See here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_problem https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_problem
- mlsu 3y agoI don't necessarily mean that Socrates is a totally fictional character. Just that basically everything we know about his "character" is made up. Like, he did exist, but the Socrates that we know doesn't talk like that, didn't have those ideas, wasn't that clever, didn't do any of the stuff described, wasn't put to death in such a fashion, etc. Those were all just made up as a way for Plato to forward his ideas; because in those days you couldn't just dryly talk about ideas, you needed to have characters and a story and so on.
- olddustytrail 3y agoIf you're going to assume that, then why not assume that Plato was equally made up and just a story?