Theaetetus by Plato

Theaetetus
by Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett

"The Theaetetus is one of Platos dialogues concerning the nature of knowledge. The framing of the dialogue begins when Euclides tells his friend Terpsion that he wrote a book many years ago based on what Socrates told him of a conversation he had with Theaetetus when he was quite a young man. Euclides had seen Theaetetus being carried off the battlefield with a case of dysentery and a minor war wound. Euclides says that Socrates correctly prophesied that Theaetetus would become a notable man if he lived long enough. The dialogue is read aloud to the two men by a slave boy in the employ of Euclides.

In this dialogue, Socrates and Theaetetus discuss three definitions of knowledge: knowledge as nothing but perception, knowledge as true judgment, and, finally, knowledge as a true judgment with an account. Each of these definitions are shown to be unsatisfactory. The conversation ends with Socrates announcement that he has to go to court to answer to the charges that he has been corrupting the young and failing to worship Athenian Gods."