What precisely did Socrates teach? Oddly this is a difficult question to answer in that our written record of Soc comes primarily from Plato (and some Xenophon and Aristophanes) So, whereas we can say with some confidence what Plato taught, it is not so easy to say what Socrates taught.

The standard position is that Plato's early dialogues, those written prior to The Republic, probably represent a good deal of what Socrates thought - and presumably taught - and that the middle and later dialogues of Plato probably represent Plato's break from Socratic thought. (fodder for many a dissertation)

If this is correct, Plato's early dialogues primarily focus on trying to say what justice, beauty, and virtue are. What the dialogues more typically do is say what they are not. In the dialogues, Plato uses a method called the elenchus in which, through questioning, Socrates and his interlocutor come to find that the proposed definition of say virtue leads to a contradiction and thus is not a good definition of virtue.

In our time, we probably think that this sort of teaching doesn't really warrant a death sentence. I am no historian, but I usually guess that old Soc was on the wrong side of the political fence. (and maybe Plato is not above a little rhetoric himself.)

What precisely did Socrates teach? Oddly this is a difficult question to answer in that our written record of Socrates comes primarily from Plato (and some Xenophon and Aristophanes) So, whereas we can say with some confidence what Plato taught, it is not so easy to say what Socrates taught.

The standard position is that Plato's early dialogues, those written prior to The Republic, probably represent a good deal of what Socrates thought - and presumably taught - and that the middle and later dialogues of Plato probably represent Plato's break from Socratic thought. (fodder for many a dissertation)

If this is correct, Plato's early dialogues primarily focus on trying to say what justice, beauty, and virtue are. What the dialogues more typically do is say what they are not. In the dialogues, Plato uses a method called the elenchus in which, through questioning, Socrates and his interlocutor come to find that the proposed definition of say virtue leads to a contradiction and thus is not a good definition of virtue.

In our time, we probably think that this sort of teaching doesn't really warrant a death sentence. I am no historian, but I usually guess that old Socrates was on the wrong side of the political fence. (and maybe Plato is not above a little rhetoric himself.)