Socrates

(c 470-399 BC) Greek philosopher; founded philosophy; Plato was his student. Agreed with the Sophists that knowledge of reality is uncertain. But moral knowledge is possible: "Virtue is knowledge," and there is virtue. Moral knowledge is universal (moral absolutism). Universal principles open to reason are those moral concepts in which all particular ideas agree. The Socratic method is dialectic al and inductive : universals are derived from particulars by noting differences in identities and identities in differences.