The history of the philosopher Socrates is shrouded in mystery. As he did not document any of his teachings or philosophies we have learned most of what we know of him from his 'best disciple', Plato, through his philosophical or dramatic texts. This has become known as the 'Socratic Problem', as disentangling the real Socrates from Plato's more vivacious accounts of him is almost impossible. However, what we do know about is Socrates' approach to dialogue and philosophy, creating the 'Socratic Method'. The Socratic Method seeks to unveil truth through sustained discussion as a means of eliminating hypotheses - focused criticism on a posited argument reveals inaccuracies and contradictions that may prove them false. The method looks for consistency across all things, and considers those theories that maintain consistencies to be ultimate truths. Socrates' teachings feed back into the ultimate quest for knowledge and truth, or epistemology, which was the cornerstone of Hellenic philosophy.
