Virtue ethics describes the character of a moral agent as a driving force for ethical behavior, and is used to describe the ethics of Socrates, Aristotle, and other early Greek philosophers.

But he figures here more as a character written into some of Plato's dialogues, a young, debauched playboy, whom Socrates tries to convince to seek truth instead of pleasure, wisdom instead of pomp and splendeur.

In Act II, Scene III of Henry V, his death is described by the character " Hostess ", possibly the Mistress Quickly of Henry IV, who describes his body in terms that parody Plato's description of the death of Socrates.

No works by Socrates himself survive, but his younger friend Plato composed numerous ' Socratic dialogues ', with Socrates as the main character.

Western humour theory begins with Plato, who attributed to Socrates ( as a semihistorical dialogue character ) in the Philebus ( p. 49b ) the view that the essence of the ridiculous is an ignorance in the weak, who are thus unable to retaliate when ridiculed.

While there has to be some elements of real life history to the setting under most definitions, the " detective " may be a real-life historical figure, e. g. Socrates, Jane Austen, Mozart, or a wholly imaginary character.

But Socrates replies that, because of their strength of numbers, the class of common rabble is stronger than the propertied class of nobles, even though the masses are prima facie of worse character.

The philosophic dialogue, with or without Socrates as a character, continues to be used on occasion by philosophers when attempting to write engaging, literary works of philosophy which attempt to capture the subtle nuance and lively give-and-take of discourse as it actually takes place in intellectual conversation.

Whereas the Republic is premised on a distinction between the sort of knowledge possessed by the philosopher and that possessed by the king or political man, Socrates explores only the character of the philosopher ; in the Statesman, on the other hand, a participant referred to as the Eleatic Stranger discusses the sort of knowledge possessed by the political man while Socrates listens quietly.

In Aristophanes ' comedy The Clouds ( 423 BC ), when the character Socrates is quizzing his student on poetic meters, Strepsiades declares that he knows quite well what a dactyl is, and gives the finger.

* Nicias appears as a character in Plato's dialogue Laches, in which Socrates and others discuss the nature of courage without reaching any firm conclusions.

It is set in the Athenian social life, in which develops its content about the subject of love and Socrates character.

He does this in the dialogue through the character of Socrates, who uses it in a discussion of the merit of Love as " divine madness ".

In Plato's Apology, Socrates recounts an incident in which the Thirty once ordered him ( and four other men ) to bring before them Leon of Salamis, a man known for his justice and upright character, for execution.

Plato describes " The Form of the Good " ( τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἰδέαν ) in his dialogue, the Republic, speaking through the character of Socrates.

In his dialogue Meno, Plato has the character Meno accuse Socrates of " stunning " people with his puzzling questions, in a manner similar to the way the torpedo fish stuns with electricity.

( 132a-b ) Socrates ' reason for believing in the existence of a single Form in each case is that when he views a number of ( say ) large things, there appears to be a single character which they all share, viz.

Plato's Symposium could accurately be subtitled " On Sophrosyne ," and his character Socrates is sophrosyne exemplified.

Although Socrates — who was the main character in most of Plato's dialogues — was a genuine historical figure, it is commonly understood that in later dialogues Plato used the character of Socrates to give voice to his own philosophical views.

Together with Plato and Socrates ( Plato's teacher ), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy.

In the introduction, Socrates muses about the perfect society, described in Plato's Republic ( c. 380 BC ), and wonders if he and his guests might recollect a story which exemplifies such a society.

In many of Plato's dialogues, such as the Meno, and in particular the Theaetetus, Socrates considers a number of theories as to what knowledge is, the last being that knowledge is true belief that has been " given an account of " — meaning explained or defined in some way.

The usual meaning of gnostikos in Classical Greek texts is " learned " or " intellectual ", such as used in the comparison of " practical " ( praktikos ) and " intellectual " ( gnostikos ) in Plato's dialogue between Young Socrates and the Foreigner in his The Statesman ( 258e ).

In Plato's early dialogues, Socrates uses the elenctic method to investigate the nature or definition of ethical concepts such as justice or virtue.

In Plato's dialogue Euthydemus, Socrates describes the labyrinthine line of a logical argument:

Larissa was indeed the birthplace of Meno, who thus became, along with Xenophon and a few others, one of the generals leading several thousands Greeks from various places, in the ill-fated expedition of 401 ( retold in Xenophon's Anabasis ) meant to help Cyrus the Younger, son of Darius II, king of Persia, overthrow his elder brother Artaxerxes II and take over the throne of Persia ( Meno is featured in Plato's dialogue bearing his name, in which Socrates uses the example of " the way to Larissa " to help explain Meno the difference between true opinion and science ( Meno, 97a – c ) ; this " way to Larissa " might well be on the part of Socrates an attempt to call to Meno's mind a " way home ", understood as the way toward one's true and " eternal " home reached only at death, that each man is supposed to seek in his life ).

Plato's animosity against rhetoric, and against the sophists, derives not only from their inflated claims to teach virtue and their reliance on appearances, but from the fact that his teacher, Socrates, was sentenced to death after sophists ' efforts.

Socrates ', Plato's and Aristotle's ideas about truth are commonly seen as consistent with correspondence theory.

Many point to Socrates ' argument, specifically as given in Plato's Crito, for accepting his order to drink poison as representing a sophisticated argument for observing social contracts.

Arion is alluded to in Plato's " Republic " at 453d, where Socrates says: “ Then we, too, must swim and try to escape out of the sea of argument in the hope that either some dolphin will take us on its back.

In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates defines the misanthrope in relation to his fellow man: " Misanthropy develops when without art one puts complete trust in somebody thinking the man absolutely true and sound and reliable and then a little later discovers him to be bad and unreliable ... and when it happens to someone often ... he ends up ... hating everyone.

In Plato's early dialogues, the elenchus is the technique Socrates uses to investigate, for example, the nature or definition of ethical concepts such as justice or virtue.

* Plato's dialogue Euthyphro, in which Socrates seeks a definition of piety.

In Plato's dialogues and other Socratic dialogues, Socrates attempts to examine someone's beliefs, at times even first principles or premises by which we all reason and argue.

The oldest explicit mention on record of a standard list of seven sages is in Plato's Protagoras, where Socrates says:

* Cephalus, son of Lysanias from Syracuse ( 5th c. BC ), a wealthy metic and elderly arms manufacturer living in Athens who engages in dialogue with Socrates in Plato's Republic.

In Plato's Symposium, when Alcibiades likens Socrates to Marsyas, it is this aspect of the wise satyr that is intended.

In Book VI of Plato's Republic, Glaucon says to Socrates: " Momus himself could not find fault with such a combination.

* Lycon, a prosecutor in the trial of Socrates mentioned in Plato's dialogue, the Apology

Socrates is the speaker of The Republic, but it is generally believed that the thoughts expressed are Plato's.

It is written as a dialogue narrated by Plato's friend Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon at the beginning of Book VII ( 514a – 520a ).