{
 "field": [
  {
   "id": "B1",
   "card": "Wikipedia — Socratic problem",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_problem",
   "fetched": "WebFetch verbatim excerpts 2026-10-07"
  },
  {
   "id": "B2",
   "card": "Big Think — Socratic problem: How Plato and other Greek writers invented Socrates (T. Brinkhof, 1 Mar 2022)",
   "url": "https://bigthink.com/the-past/socratic-problem-plato-socrates/",
   "fetched": "WebFetch verbatim excerpts 2026-10-07"
  },
  {
   "id": "B3",
   "card": "Santa Clara University Scholar Commons — William J. Prior, The Socratic Problem (in A Blackwell Companion to Plato, ed. H. Benson, 2006, 25–34)",
   "url": "https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/phi/83",
   "fetched": "WebFetch verbatim excerpts 2026-10-07 (full abstract)"
  },
  {
   "id": "B4",
   "card": "Wikipedia — Socrates (§ The Socratic problem)",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates",
   "fetched": "WebFetch verbatim excerpts 2026-10-07"
  },
  {
   "id": "B5",
   "card": "YouTube — The Socratic Problem (Nothing New, 9:58)",
   "url": null,
   "fetched": "not fetchable: video; title only"
  },
  {
   "id": "B6",
   "card": "YouTube — The Socratic Problem (Academy of Ideas, 3m)",
   "url": null,
   "fetched": "not fetchable: video; title only"
  },
  {
   "id": "B7",
   "card": "Reddit r/philosophy — The Socratic Problem: Reconstructing the Historical Socrates",
   "url": null,
   "fetched": "not fetchable: reddit.com blocked to WebFetch; title only"
  }
 ],
 "field_claims": {
  "F1": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "lead",
   "quote": "\"concerns attempts at reconstructing a historical and philosophical image of Socrates based on the variable, and sometimes contradictory, nature of the existing sources\"",
   "claim": "The problem concerns reconstructing Socrates from variable, contradictory sources",
   "modality": "stipulation",
   "kernel": true,
   "const": true,
   "lineage": "sp-definition"
  },
  "F2": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "lead",
   "quote": "\"Since no writings by Socrates himself survive to the modern era, his actual views must be discerned\"",
   "claim": "No writings by Socrates survive",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": true,
   "lineage": "socrates-wrote-nothing"
  },
  "F3": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "lead",
   "quote": "\"Scholars rely upon extant sources, such as those of contemporaries like Aristophanes or disciples of Socrates like Plato and Xenophon\"",
   "claim": "Sources: Aristophanes (contemporary), Plato and Xenophon (disciples)",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "four-sources"
  },
  "F4": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Sources",
   "quote": "\"Besides Plato, three other important sources exist for the study of Socrates: Aristophanes, Aristotle, and Xenophon\"",
   "claim": "Four main sources: Plato, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Xenophon",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "four-sources"
  },
  "F5": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Sources",
   "quote": "\"There are also four sources extant in fragmentary states: Aeschines of Sphettus, Antisthenes, Euclid of Megara, and Phaedo of Elis\"",
   "claim": "Fragmentary Socratics: Aeschines, Antisthenes, Euclid, Phaedo",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "fragmentary-socratics"
  },
  "F6": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Plato",
   "quote": "\"Many of the dialogues seem to use Socrates as a device for Plato's thought\"",
   "claim": "Socrates as a device for Plato's thought",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "plato-socrates-device"
  },
  "F7": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Plato",
   "quote": "\"it is widely believed that very few, if any, of Plato's dialogues can be verbatim accounts\"",
   "claim": "Few if any dialogues are verbatim accounts",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "dialogues-not-verbatim"
  },
  "F8": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "lead",
   "quote": "\"the most common modern view is that Plato's dialogues contain a development of thought from closer to that of Socrates' to a doctrine more distinctly Plato's own\"",
   "claim": "Common view: dialogues develop from Socratic to Platonic doctrine",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "developmentalism"
  },
  "F9": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Chronology",
   "quote": "\"Stylometric analysis of Plato's work has led some scholars to classify dialogues as falling approximately into three groups, Early, Middle and Late\"",
   "claim": "Stylometry groups dialogues Early/Middle/Late",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "stylometric-chronology"
  },
  "F10": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Contradictions",
   "quote": "\"Plato has Socrates denying that he would ever accept money for teaching, while Xenophon's Symposium clearly has Socrates stating that students pay him to teach wisdom\"",
   "claim": "Plato and Xenophon contradict on payment for teaching",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "source-contradictions"
  },
  "F11": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Schleiermacher",
   "quote": "\"An essay written by Friedrich Schleiermacher in 1815...is considered the most significant and influential toward developing an understanding of the problem\"",
   "claim": "Schleiermacher's 1815 essay most influential",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "schleiermacher-1815"
  },
  "F12": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Schleiermacher",
   "quote": "\"Schleiermacher maintained that the two dialogues Apology and Crito are purely Socratic\"",
   "claim": "Schleiermacher: Apology and Crito purely Socratic",
   "modality": "attributed",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "schleiermacher-1815"
  },
  "F13": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Schleiermacher",
   "quote": "\"the real Socratic problem is understanding the dialectic between the figures of the 'Stranger' and 'Socrates'\"",
   "claim": "Real problem as the dialectic between 'Stranger' and 'Socrates'",
   "modality": "attributed",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "stranger-socrates-dialectic"
  },
  "F14": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Aristotle",
   "quote": "\"Aristotle did not know Socrates directly; most of what he knew about him came from Plato and other sources\"",
   "claim": "Aristotle's knowledge secondhand",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "aristotle-testimony"
  },
  "F15": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Aristotle",
   "quote": "\"Aristotle states that Socrates did not defend the idea of forms existing separately, which is a view attributed to Plato\"",
   "claim": "Aristotle: Socrates did not hold separate forms",
   "modality": "attributed",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "forms-not-separate"
  },
  "F16": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Solvability",
   "quote": "\"It has become apparent to scholarship that this problem is seemingly impossible to clarify and thus perhaps now classified as unsolvable\"",
   "claim": "Problem perhaps unsolvable",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": true,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "unsolvable"
  },
  "F17": {
   "source": "B1",
   "locus": "Kahn",
   "quote": "\"Charles Kahn...argued that Plato had created his works...as a unified philosophical vision, whereby he uses Socratic dialogues, a non-historical genre\"",
   "claim": "Kahn: Socratic dialogue a non-historical genre in Plato's unified vision",
   "modality": "attributed",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "literary-genre-socrates"
  },
  "F18": {
   "source": "B2",
   "locus": "standfirst",
   "quote": "\"Socrates lived during a time when people did not strive to separate fact from fiction. So how much of what we know about Socrates is true?\"",
   "claim": "Socrates' era did not separate fact from fiction",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": true,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "fact-fiction"
  },
  "F19": {
   "source": "B2",
   "locus": "text",
   "quote": "\"This problem — also known as the Socratic problem — has proven so difficult to solve that it has almost evolved into an academic discipline of its own.\"",
   "claim": "So hard it is almost its own discipline",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "unsolvable"
  },
  "F20": {
   "source": "B2",
   "locus": "text",
   "quote": "\"The 'real' Socrates we have not,\" Dutch philosopher C.J. de Vogel surmised of the Socratic problem in an article from 1955. \"What we have is a set of interpretations each of which represents a 'theoretically possible' Socrates.\"",
   "claim": "De Vogel 1955: no 'real' Socrates, only possible Socrateses",
   "modality": "attributed",
   "kernel": true,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "possible-socrateses"
  },
  "F21": {
   "source": "B2",
   "locus": "text",
   "quote": "\"Most of what we know about Socrates comes from just three sources: Plato, Aristophanes the playwright, and Xenophon the historian.\"",
   "claim": "Three main sources: Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "four-sources"
  },
  "F22": {
   "source": "B2",
   "locus": "text",
   "quote": "\"Of the 35 dialogues Plato wrote in his lifetime, Socrates serves as the principal character in all but one, Laws.\"",
   "claim": "Socrates principal in all of Plato's 35 dialogues but Laws",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "plato-socrates-device"
  },
  "F23": {
   "source": "B2",
   "locus": "text",
   "quote": "\"Over the years, academics have raised several concerns about the dialogues. First and foremost, several of them appear to have been based on events that took place before Plato's own birth\"",
   "claim": "Some dialogues depict events before Plato's birth",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "dialogues-not-verbatim"
  },
  "F24": {
   "source": "B2",
   "locus": "text",
   "quote": "\"The substantial differences between Plato's version of Socrates and Aristophanes' version have led scholars to suggest that the Socrates from The Clouds is not so much a caricature of the historical figure as he is an amalgamation of different philosophers\"",
   "claim": "Clouds' Socrates as an amalgamation of philosophers",
   "modality": "hypothesis",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "clouds-amalgam"
  },
  "F25": {
   "source": "B2",
   "locus": "text",
   "quote": "\"Xenophon's version of Socrates is more practical than his Platonic counterpart, advising others on subjects that Plato's Socrates never mentioned\"",
   "claim": "Xenophon's Socrates more practical",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "source-contradictions"
  },
  "F26": {
   "source": "B3",
   "locus": "abstract",
   "quote": "\"These questions constitute the \"Socratic problem,\" the attempt to discover the historical individual behind the ancient accounts of Socrates and his philosophy.\"",
   "claim": "The problem: discovering the historical individual behind the accounts",
   "modality": "stipulation",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": true,
   "lineage": "sp-definition"
  },
  "F27": {
   "source": "B3",
   "locus": "abstract",
   "quote": "\"Socrates wrote nothing; for our information we depend on four major sources.\"",
   "claim": "Socrates wrote nothing; four major sources",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "socrates-wrote-nothing"
  },
  "F28": {
   "source": "B3",
   "locus": "abstract",
   "quote": "\"The earliest source is Greek comedy, primarily Aristophanes' Clouds, produced in 423 B.C.\"",
   "claim": "Earliest source: Aristophanes' Clouds, 423 BC",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "four-sources"
  },
  "F29": {
   "source": "B3",
   "locus": "abstract",
   "quote": "\"Born fifteen years after Socrates' death, Aristotle was a member of Plato's Academy and was presumably familiar with the ancient literature and lore concerning Socrates.\"",
   "claim": "Aristotle born 15 years after Socrates' death; Academy member",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "aristotle-testimony"
  },
  "F30": {
   "source": "B3",
   "locus": "abstract",
   "quote": "\"The Socratic problem stems in part from questions about the reliability of these sources.\"",
   "claim": "Problem stems partly from source reliability",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "source-reliability"
  },
  "F31": {
   "source": "B3",
   "locus": "abstract",
   "quote": "\"I shall argue below that we know a good deal about the life, character, philosophical interests and method of the historical Socrates.\"",
   "claim": "Prior: we know much of life, character, interests, method",
   "modality": "hypothesis",
   "kernel": true,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "prior-knowable-life-method"
  },
  "F32": {
   "source": "B3",
   "locus": "abstract",
   "quote": "\"Unfortunately, our knowledge does not extend to what doctrines, if any, he may have professed, which is just what contemporary philosophical scholars most want to know.\"",
   "claim": "Prior: doctrines, if any, unknowable",
   "modality": "hypothesis",
   "kernel": true,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "doctrines-unknown"
  },
  "F33": {
   "source": "B3",
   "locus": "abstract",
   "quote": "\"The uncertainty about Socrates' doctrines is traceable to our earliest sources, and in fact to the portraits of Socrates in our most weighty source, Plato. Socrates was apparently something of a mystery even to his closest associates.\"",
   "claim": "Uncertainty traces to Plato; Socrates a mystery even to associates",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "doctrines-unknown"
  },
  "F34": {
   "source": "B4",
   "locus": "lead",
   "quote": "\"An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no texts and is known mainly through the posthumous accounts of classical writers\"",
   "claim": "Socrates authored no texts; known through posthumous accounts",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "socrates-wrote-nothing"
  },
  "F35": {
   "source": "B4",
   "locus": "lead",
   "quote": "\"Contradictory accounts of Socrates make a reconstruction of his philosophy nearly impossible, a situation known as the Socratic problem\"",
   "claim": "Contradictory accounts make reconstruction nearly impossible: the Socratic problem",
   "modality": "stipulation",
   "kernel": true,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "sp-definition"
  },
  "F36": {
   "source": "B4",
   "locus": "Xenophon",
   "quote": "\"Xenophon's Socrates is duller, less humorous and less ironic than Plato's\"",
   "claim": "Xenophon's Socrates duller than Plato's",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "xenophon-rejected"
  },
  "F37": {
   "source": "B4",
   "locus": "Xenophon",
   "quote": "\"Xenophon portrayed Socrates as an uninspiring philosopher\"",
   "claim": "(Schleiermacher:) Xenophon's Socrates uninspiring",
   "modality": "attributed",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "xenophon-rejected"
  },
  "F38": {
   "source": "B4",
   "locus": "Xenophon",
   "quote": "\"By the early twentieth century, Xenophon's account was largely rejected\"",
   "claim": "Xenophon largely rejected by early 20th c.",
   "modality": "documented",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "xenophon-rejected"
  },
  "F39": {
   "source": "B4",
   "locus": "Plato",
   "quote": "\"How trustworthy Plato is in representing the attributes of Socrates is a matter of debate\"",
   "claim": "Plato's trustworthiness debated",
   "modality": "contested",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "source-reliability"
  },
  "F40": {
   "source": "B4",
   "locus": "Aristotle",
   "quote": "\"Aristotle treats Socrates without the bias of Xenophon and Plato, who had an emotional tie with Socrates\"",
   "claim": "Aristotle free of disciples' bias",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "aristotle-testimony"
  },
  "F41": {
   "source": "B4",
   "locus": "Other sources",
   "quote": "\"Generally, logoi Sokratikoi cannot help us to reconstruct the historical Socrates even in cases where their narratives overlap\"",
   "claim": "Logoi Sokratikoi cannot reconstruct the historical Socrates even where they overlap",
   "modality": "interpretation",
   "kernel": true,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "literary-genre-socrates"
  },
  "F42": {
   "source": "B4",
   "locus": "Socratic problem",
   "quote": "\"Charles H. Kahn has reinforced the skeptical stance on the unsolvable Socratic problem, suggesting that only Plato's Apology has any historical significance\"",
   "claim": "Kahn: only the Apology historically significant",
   "modality": "attributed",
   "kernel": false,
   "const": false,
   "lineage": "unsolvable"
  }
 }
}