Purpose Of Socrates

The main purpose of Socratess talk is to discover the truth and to argue about the way of human life. This can be seen by the words "And if I am to carry on the enquiry by myself, I will first of all remark that not only I but all of us should have an ambition to know what is true and what is false in this matter, for the discovery of the truth is a common good."(Page 104) and "for you will observe that we are arguing about the way of human life"(Page 99). In the last speech of Socrates, he said, "I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can, and, when I die, to die as well as I can. And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same"(Page 121). "exhort" means he tried to persuade people. This word is also mentioned in the last sentence of the dialogue "This way let us go; and in this exhort all men to follow,"(Page 122). What he tried to convinced people of is to know the truth and the correct way of human life which is to live as well as they can. And also, Socrates suggested that in order to live well, people need to "practise justice and every virtue in life and death"(Page 122). This can also be proved by the sentence "that todo injustice is more to be avoided than to suffer injustice, and that the reality …show more content…
However, Callicles might be persuaded by part of Socrates' opinion but Socrates' talk was such a subversion to Callicles' original values and beliefs, so he refused to admit that Socrates was correct. Callicles keep saying "Yes", "True" to Socrates' questions. Some answers are perfunctory, but some are sincere. He said "Somehow or other your words, Socrates, always appear to me to be good words; and yet, like the rest of the world, I am not quite convinced by them."(Page 110, Bottom Line). From this perspective, Socrates is a "good" rhetorician because he made one closer to truth and better, and this is what he called