Early Dialogues: Laches, Charmides, Lysis, Ion

Introduction

This volume gathers four of Plato's early short dialogues, each built around a concept that everyone seems to understand. The Laches asks what courage is, the Charmides what temperance is, the Lysis what friendship is, and the Ion whether a performer of Homer works by knowledge or by divine inspiration. In each, Socrates' questioning brings out the contradictions in common opinion, and the dialogues often end without an answer, letting the reader experience at first hand the beginning of philosophical thought.