This volume has the particularity of seeking to provide a comprehensive picture of the most famous philosopher in antiquity, perhaps even to our time, the Athenian Socrates.
As is known, some great initiates (religious leaders, philosophers, politicians) taught, but did not leave written works; they were "writers of oral discourse". And it was left to those who were their direct or indirect disciples the not easy task of presenting the teaching of the teacher, describing the details of his life, and interpreting in their own way what, in their opinion, was the authentic image of the differently interpreted by others common figure. Without referring to more cases, let us limit ourselves to the established four gospels of the New Testament and the numerically more numerous apocryphal gospels.
In the case of Socrates, who certainly did not write anything but taught for many years on every opportunity that presented itself, there were many, as attested by relevant references, who self-proclaimed successors of his founded their "Socratic" schools after his death, wrote about Socrates and certainly claimed with some self-satisfaction that they were the spiritual heirs of the great philosopher. Their works about Socrates have not been preserved for us. Fortunately for us, they have been preserved among the works of two prolific Athenians, Plato and Xenophon, some works (more by the former, fewer by the latter) in which the speech of Socrates takes center stage. [...]
(from the book's preface)