Socrates

My impression of Socrates from the reading is that he is a highly intellectual man who likes to engage others in deep-thinking conversations or debates. He does this by asking questions or making statements on the topic at hand to challenge what has previously been said, as on page 3 "I listened in admiration, and wanting to draw him out, that he might go on-- Yes, Cephalus, I said: but I rather suspect that people in general are not convinced by you when you speak thus..." Because all of his statements or question is asked in a way to show his wisdom and knowledge on the matter, he's able to persuade the people he speaks with to think differently than before, as he did with Polemarchus. In the beginning of their debate on justice and debt, Polemarchus believed the statement "the repayment of debt is just" by Simonides was right, even if it meant doing evil to enemies as repayment for the evils done by them. However, by the end of this conversation, Socrates manages to change Polemarchus' mind on the matter by exposing loopholes in Simonides’ statement and using logical reasoning to come to the statement on page 10, “Then if a man says that justice consists in the repayment of debt……injuring of another can be in no case just,” which Polemarchus now agrees to. Socrates does this often in his arguments, using his own reasoning to appeal to the logical side of his companion’s thoughts in order to sway him to a different conclusion.