Catalin Partenie, ‘The Socratic Locus of Certainty’, Echinox (Cluj) 4-5-6 (1997), 34-5 1 The Socratic locus of certainty Echinox (Cluj) 4-5-6 (1997), 34-5 Catalin Partenie To Petru Cretia and Alexandru Dragomir, mala dialektikoi andres This is a fragment from the introduction of my doctoral dissertation (Plato's hypothetical dialectic) and it is based on a series of lectures I delivered at New Europe College at Bucharest, in January 1996. I wish to thank my audiences for their interest and critical remarks. The text of the Platonic corpus used for citations is that of the Oxford Classical Text, edited by J. Burnet. Translations of Plato's texts are from The Collected Dialogues of Plato (Princeton University Press, 1989). For Plato's works I have used the abbreviations of Liddell-Scott-Jones's Greek-English Lexicon. Greek words are written in transliteration. No one can deny the fact that Plato's first dialogues are dominated by the Socratic matter and its elements (the elenchos, the What is X question, etc.). In other words, one cannot deny Socrates’ influence on Plato: one can only approximate its degree; this approximation, however, is a very delicate business. But first, what does the 'Socratic matter' consist of? 1. The Socratic paradeigma: the escape from pseudo-certain knowledge One of our Oxford colleagues once remarked to me that his abler undergraduates could generally be relied upon to observe in their second week of study of the Republic: ‘It seems to be assumed that what Socrates says represents what Plato thinks; but isn't that a questionable assumption?’ To which he would reply that the point is an excellent one, but not something to be pursued if the student is to get the appropriate benefit from reading the Republic: viz. to learn some philosophy.