Abstract
The Socratic method is much in evidence both from explicit statements and from the dramatic actions of Socrates. The detractors aim their criticism mainly at Plato's political philosophy, especially as found in the Republic, the Statesman, and the Laws. This bewilderment may be sharply increased by the recollection of his own reading, however cursory, of Plato's Republic. The dogmatic, fanatical attitude which certainly pervades at least some portions of the Republic is often contrasted unfavorably with the spirit of free and fearless inquiry so characteristic of Plato's earlier writings, especially the Apology and the Crito. In the Republic, these are advocated without qualification. The scheme to abolish private property and to have wives and children in common is abandoned in the Laws. In the Laws there is a great concern with consequences foreseeable in the light of past experience. Finally, the Laws circumscribe the function of the state, which in the Republic seems almost without limits.
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