I HAVE referred several times to the relation of Pla-
tonism and the various Hellenistic philosophies to the
doctrines of Socrates. For the sake of obtaining a
summary view of the matter we may set down these
affiliations in a diagram, remembering, however, that
such a schematization is of the roughest sort and does
not pretend to completeness or exactness.

The intellectual method of Socrates may be de-
scribed as combining scepticism and the equation vir-
tue = knowledge. Owing to the ambiguous sense of the
word knowledge, the equation, taken in one way, leads
to a rationalism, or metaphysic, quite incompatible
with scepticism, while taken in another way, it leads
to reasonableness and a kind of intuition which consort
easily with scepticism. This distinction I have treated
at length in my Platonism. Passing on to the data of life,
we may say that Socrates applied his method in such
a manner as to obtain a calculating hedonism, an op-
timistic endurance of things as they are (karteria),
and a spiritual affirmation. The practical outcome of
this application is the two traits of character, liberty
and security, which together form self-sufficiency (au-
tarkeia).

Now the various schools dealt with in this volume
are all imperfectly Socratic in the sense that they each

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