ABSTRACT
Introduction Several of Plato’s Socratic Dialogues are quests for definitions of the various Greek virtues. Aristotle tells us that Socrates was the first thinker who sought definitions:1
Now Socrates devoted his attention to the moral virtues, and was the first to seek universal definitions concerning these things…; and he did well to ask what a thing is; for he sought to reason logically, and what a thing is is the beginning of logical reasoning…. There are two innovations which may be justly attributed to Socrates, inductive reasoning and universal definitions. Both of these are about the beginning of scientific knowledge.
