Conversations with Socrates

Socrates chose a very fitting word: “I only converse…” Conversation places no obligations on anyone. A free talk pours out effortlessly, jumping from one topic to another, touching the widest range of problems.

Everyone is free to speak what they want and how they want. No one will accuse the conversants of being inconsistent in their reasoning or of being biased, of not following strict logic of conclusion, and so on. Besides, the goal is not to search for truth, but the opportunity to express oneself and to listen to others. Conversation is a genre of ordinary everyday spoken life.

But for a philosopher, conversation takes on a completely different meaning. With reference to Socrates and Plato, it is an authorial trick. In their conversations there is, of necessity, strict logic of reasoning that will inevitably reach the set goal—subtly, without the other person noticing, to make the interlocutor confirm their correctness, if the interlocutor isn’t well-versed either in the subject of the conversation or in the logic of reasoning…