By far the most eminent philosopher to arrive in the Athenian era of philosophy, Socrates, was the first critic of the Sophists and their methods. He condemned them for charging to share wisdom and stated that philosophical inquiry is not merely a debate on should win but a search for the elicit truth. Yet he did adopt some of the Sophists’ ideas in his techniques of arguments and study. He realized that early philosophers based their thesis on speculation rather than reasoning which he aimed to counter.
This encourages Socrates to analyze fundamental questions from scratch with pure reason and some methods of sophistical arguments with others of opposing stances – now known as the Socratic dialectical methods or simply as Socratic dialogues. By using this, Socrates would often question a concept with a tinge of childish curiosity and a mindset of ‘I only know that I know nothing’ – which would lead to a series of discussions and a group navigating all possible outcomes before reaching an agreement or not. For example, in Plato’s The Republic, the first Socratic dialogue begins with ‘What is justice?’, thoroughly examined for multiple discussions, inconsistencies and paradoxes while challenging the traditional beliefs of each person involved in the dialogue to render everyone with a better understanding of the concept.
