For these reasons, there is a broad consensus among scholars that we should not look to works such as Republic, Phaedo, Phaedrus, and Philebus for a historically accurate account of the thought of Socrates—even though they contain a speaker called Socrates who argues for certain philosophical positions and opposes others. At the same time, we can explain why Plato uses the literary character of Socrates in many of his writings to present ideas that go well beyond anything that the historical Socrates said or believed. In these works, Plato is developing ideas that were inspired by his encounter with Socrates, using methods of inquiry borrowed from Socrates, and showing how much can be accomplished with these Socratic starting points. That is why he assigns Socrates the role of principal interlocutor, despite the fact that he did not intend these works to be mere re-creations of Socrates’ conversations.
Explicación de por qué Platón hace de Sócrates el principal protagonista de sus diálogos.