Apology by Plato

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The oracle at Delphi declared Socrates to be the wissest of all men,
and Socrates suggested that if he were superior to other men in wisdom,
it was only because he was aware of his own ignorance.
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Defending himself against the charge of impiety and corrupting the young,
Socrates argued that the pretenders to wisdom,
whom he exposed by his critical questioning,
must have spread rumors about him in order to discredit him.
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Socrates maintained that it would have been foolish for him
to corrupt the very persons with whom he associated,
for everyone knows that corrupt and evil persons harm
even those who have once befriended them.
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If to point out the weaknesses in a state is to do the state a service,
Socrates argued,
then he had better be rewarded for performing the function of gadfly to the state.
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After having been condemned to death,
Socrates declared that death is not to be feared,
for either it is annihilation,
or it is a change to a better world
where one might converse with noble souls.
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Meno by Plato,Μένων

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Meno asks Socrates how to acquire VIRTUE,
and Socrates questions him in order to discover the nature of virtue ;
Meno either uses the term,gives examples,or offers circular definitions.
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The question arises as to how anyone can inquire about that which he does not know,
for it would seem that one must know what one is inquiring about.
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Socrates suggests that men's souls are immortal,
and that in the course of their travels between reincarnations
the souls acquire knowledge of all things ;
acquiring knowledge in this life,then,is an act of recollection.
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VIRTUE can be taught if virtue is knowledge,
but there appear to be no teachers of virtue ;
virtue must be a gift of gods.
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Euthyphro,Ευθύφρων by Plato

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Socrates has been charged by Melerus with corrupting the youth of Athens and with inventing new gods ; and he seeks to learn fron Euthyphro,who is prosecuting his own father for murder,the distinction between PIETY and IMPIETY.
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Euthyphro suggests that PIETY is prosecuting the unjust,
those who have committed such crimes as murder or sacrilege ;
IMPIETY is failure to prosecute such persons.
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But Socrates points out that this is an example,not a definition ;
and thus Euthyphro suggests that PIETY is whatever is pleasing to the gods,
and IMPIETY is whatever is displeasing to them.
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But Socrates rejects Euthyphro's definition on the ground that
the gods do not agree in attitude concerning the acts of men,
nor is it satisfactory to say that the pious is what all the gods love,
for the pertinent question concerns the nature of PIETY in virtue of which the gods love it.
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If,as Eythyphro then claims,PIETY is paying careful attention to the gods,
by means of prayer and worship,
for the benefit of man,
then PIETY seems to be loved by gods even through it is of no benefit to the gods ;
but this runs counter to the previous claim that PIETY is good not simply because the gods love it.
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