> He may be simply giving his own opinion and attributing it to Socrates, who had a higher reputation. We'll never really know how much the human Socrates matc

> He may be simply giving his own opinion and attributing it to Socrates, who had a higher reputation. We'll never really know how much the human Socrates matches Plato's literary character. But the reason for that is that Socrates never did write down his teachings, whereas Plato did. It would be a funny old world in which Socrates had no objection to writing, but never wrote anything, but Plato did have a an objection to writing, but wrote lots of stuff, including lies about Socrates objecting to writing. But then again, this is a funny old world.