The Mask of Dialogue: On the Unity of Socrates’ Characterization in Plato’s Dialogues

Throughout the corpus Plato presents the character of Socrates consistently: two constant features of his behaviour are a lack of αὐτάρκεια, in the sense of an autonoumous path to knowledge, and his absolute sincerity. Socrates always acts in response to an external factor that leads him on a quest, which develops along the lines of the examination of an interlocutor, or of a proposition, a dream, an oracle, or a παλαιὸς λόγος. The peculiarities of Socrates' mask thus satisfy the need for a character who, lacking any individual presuppositions, abides completely by the method of the φιλόσοφος: an examination carried through conversational method (διαλέγεσθαι)