Socratic Friendships

Socrates is represented by the doxographers as the central figure of a single circle of intimate companions summarily called “the Socratics.” The doxographical sources often characterize these Socratics as friends ( philoi ) of Socrates or of each other, and it is strongly suggested that these friendships were mainly philosophical: they consisted in the joint engagement of the parties in philosophical investigation. Nonetheless, it has largely escaped notice that, in Plato's and also Xenophon's writings, Socrates conducts dialectical enquiries about virtue and education not with the philosophers of his intimate circle, but, typically, with members of the Athenian elite, upper class youths in need of pedagogy, or experts in various fields. There is, then, an important and unexplored issue that this chapter raises and discusses: how to explain the friendships obtaining within the Socratic circle, and how are they comparable to the relationships that Socrates is represented as having with characters normally not included among the so-called Socratics. The chapter examines Socrates’ friendships by attending to the particularities of the context, the characters, and the circumstances depicted in the texts, and concludes with a reflection on the kind of friend that Socrates was, given his unwavering commitment to truth and virtue.