The question that there is a truth concerned both philosophers, and people, far from science, from antiquity. Did not ignore it and the antique philosopher Socrates. At the heart of its doctrine the concept of the truth and a method of its definition took the central place.
Distinction of approaches to definition of the truth
The skeptic would tell that there is no truth, the sophist would suggest to consider the truth all that is favorable to the person. But Socrates belonged to other direction opposite to sophistry and far from scepticism therefore did not consider the truth exclusively subjective concept. According to Socrates each person can have the idea of any given concept, but the truth at the same time one for all. Thus, according to Socrates's doctrine, the absolute truth is formed of a number of the relative truth.
Socrates offered the method of definition of the truth. Its essence consisted in search of contradictions in speeches of interlocutors. For this purpose he entered dialogue and argued, making all new and new hypotheses disproving opinion of interlocutors. The truth became result of it. The philosopher just also focused the attention on it. According to him, what was born in a dispute was the truth. Unlike opponents sophists with whom most often disputes were also organized the socratic truth was objective.
Subsequently the given method of definition of the truth received the name of socratic.
Sokratov method
For definition of the truth Socrates used a dialogue method, or conversations. Socrates usually began dialogue with a phrase, after gained fame: "I know that I know nothing". Especially often Socrates argued with other philosopher-sophist Protagor. Protagor considered that the truth – a concept subjective that for it, Protagor, the truth in one, and for Socrates – in another. Then Socrates began to disprove one by one arguments of the famous sophist so Protagor recognized: "You are absolutely right, Socrates". According to contemporaries, Socrates approached conducting dialogues with subtle irony was already able to convince interlocutors of correctness of any given phenomenon that they began to consider it true, as of a case with Protagor. Sokratov a method of definition of the truth in a dispute was new in ancient philosophy. Now knowledge became a subject of knowledge. The Sokratovsky philosophy dealt not with life, as at his predecessors, but with knowledge about life. The author compared the method to actions of the midwife who helps the birth of the new person. Socrates also helped to be born to the truth. Socrates closely connects a concept of morality with a concept of the truth. Thus, to Socrates the philosophers proclaimed the truth, after – were already obliged to prove it. And it was much more difficult because demanded the facts, but not theoretical conclusions.