Socratic problem consists in the precise determination of the contents of his teachings. The nature of the sources that we have greatly complicate our task: Xenophon’s book “Memoirs of Socrates”, the dialogues of Plato, various Aristotle’s statements, and "Clouds" by Aristophanes. For example, if we were to rely only on the work of Xenophon, we would have got the impression that the main Socrates’ interest was the education of decent people and responsible citizens, and he was not interested in the problems of logic and metaphysics. On the other hand, in Plato's dialogues, we can observe a metaphysician of an upper class, who is not satisfied with the problems of everyday life, but lays the foundation of transcendental philosophy by his famous theory of the metaphysical world of Forms. However, Aristotle's statements make it clear that although Socrates was interested in that theory, he was not the author of the doctrine of self-sufficient Forms or Ideas, leading Platonic doctrines. The commonly accepted viewpoint says that, although Xenophon portrays Socrates too “down to earth” person, mainly because Xenophon himself had no desire to study philosophy and did not have the necessary skills, we cannot brush aside the words of Aristotle. Moreover, we must recognize that Plato put into the mouth of Socrates his own ideas in his writings, except for earlier works, such as “Apology”. The advantage of this perspective is that Socrates of Xenophon and Plato are not opposed to each other and there are no discrepancies between the characteristics of both authors, and at the same time, the opinion of Aristotle is taken into account. These three sources provide more or less credible image of Socrates and neither one of them is not a subject to undeserved oblivion. Nevertheless, this point of view has been criticized. Karl Joel, for example, basing his opinion about Socrates on the allegations of Aristotle says that Socrates was an Attic type intellectual and rationalist, and Xenophon’s “Socrates”, which is a Spartan type, is not historical. Joel believes that Xenophon gave his Socrates some Doric features and thereby greatly distorted his image. Doering, by contrast, argues that exactly Xenophon has created the authentic image of Socrates. Aristotle's assertions are nothing else but the general opinion of members of the Old Academy, that Plato used Socrates as a sounding board for his ideas. A very different view promoted Burnet and Taylor in the UK. They believed that the real Socrates - is Plato's Socrates. Plato undoubtedly improved the thoughts of his teacher, but the ideas that he used in his “Dialogues”, represent the actual teaching of Socrates. If this was true, then the author of the metaphysical theory of Forms or Ideas would be considered not Plato, but Socrates and Aristotle's assertion would have to be either rejected or somehow explained. According to Burnet and Taylor, it is unbelievable that in a time when people who knew Socrates and what he taught were still alive, Plato decided to invest his own theories into Socrates’ words; he could only do so if Socrates himself believed in the existence of the world of Ideas. They point out that in some later dialogues of Plato, Socrates do not play the main role - the idea of Burnet and Taylor is that in those dialogues, where Socrates plays a major role, he expresses his own ideas, but not the ideas of Plato. However, in the later dialogues, Plato describes his own independent views; therefore, Socrates goes on the back burner. This last argument is, of course, very strong, as well as the fact that in the early Dialogue, which describes the death Socrates, the theory of Forms occupies a significant place. The viewpoint of Burnet and Taylor imply that Plato’s Socrates developed, improved, and explained the theory of Forms, although we know that the real Socrates did nothing of the sort. In addition, sticking to their point of view, we have to reject completely the testimony of Aristotle. It is true that Aristotle in his “Metaphysics” criticizes mainly mathematical form, in which Plato arrayed the theory of an Ideal, and that Aristotle strangely forgets to take into account the ideas expressed by Plato in his dialogues. Most likely, this is because of the fact that Aristotle believed only unpublished theory is made by Plato, which he developed in the Academy; but we have no reason to believe that the version of the theory, which Aristotle speaks about, does not correspond to those, contained in the pages of dialogue. Moreover, the fact that in the pages of the dialogues this theory has been developed and improved, says that in the dialogues, at least partly, Plato expresses his own thoughts. Later writers of antiquity were fully confident that in the dialogues, Plato outlined his own philosophy, although different authors expressed different opinions about how closely Plato's dialogues are related to the teaching Socrates; earlier authors believed that Plato expounded in dialogues mainly his own ideas, but not the ideas of Socrates. The argument in favor of the hypothesis of Burnet and Taylor is contained in the passage from the second letter of Plato, where the philosopher says that his writings - is nothing else than Socrates, only the rejuvenated and endowed with beautiful features. However, on the one hand, the authenticity of the letter, is in serious doubt, and on the other - these words may mean that in his dialogues, Plato stated metaphysical theory, legally created by him on the basis of the teachings of Socrates. It is obvious, that in the early dialogues Socrates’ teachings were used as a starting point, and if Plato developed his theory of being and knowledge, based on the teachings of Socrates, he had every right to say that this theory is a natural development of Socrates’ teachings and the result of the application of his method. The above words from the letter were born from the belief of Plato, that the theory of an Ideal, set out in the dialogues, is possible to consider a continuation and development of this doctrine, without any prejudice to the teachings of Socrates. It would be an absurd to assume that you can easily refute the point of view of such eminent scholars as Professor Taylor and Professor Burnet, but in my opinion, it is impossible to consider this issue in more detail, or to give a complete and detailed description of the theory of Burnet and Taylor, although it does deserve it. Nevertheless, I must express my agreement with unjustified disregard for the words of Aristotle, that Socrates had not allocated the Form. Aristotle spent twenty years at the Academy and, considering his great interest in the history of the philosophy, he would have hardly given up an idea to establish the authorship of such an important doctrine as the theory of Forms. Add to this the fact that the large sections of Aeschines’ “Dialogues” fully support the view of Aristotle, and Aeschines, as they say, has left the most accurate portrait of Socrates. For these reasons, it is better to accept the statement of Aristotle and, bearing in mind that the image, created by Xenophon is incomplete, stick to the traditional view, which states that Plato really put his own ideas into the words of the Master, whom he idolized. Those who adhere to the theory of Burnet and Taylor, of course, will say that it is unfair to Plato, but would it be better if we do injustice to Aristotle? If Aristotle had no opportunity to communicate with Plato and his disciples for a long time personally, we could suppose the possibility of error from him, but since he had spent twenty years at the Academy, the probability of error is precluded. However, it is unlikely that we will be able to create a completely accurate image of Socrates, and it would be foolish to consider other concepts, except our own. In my opinion, it is only necessary to specify the reasons why you prefer one image of Socrates to another, and dwell on it.
Works Cited
John Madison Cooper. Reason and Emotion. Princeton University Press, 1999. P: 3-4. Web.
Xenophon; Edward Levien. Memoirs of Socrates for English readers. London: S. Low,
Marston, Low & Searle. 1872. Web. 26 April 2015. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/memoirsofsocrate00xeno
