... kind of exploration of the Good is attempted two ideas must be made clear. Firstly, Socrates does not ever explicitly say what the Good actually is. In fact, he states that it is too wide and complex a subject and will therefore leave it unexamined.1 Consequently, he elucidates what he calls an 'offspring of the Good', which is an analogy of the nature of the sun as he will show it to relate to the nature of the Good. The Good is only important in this dialogue in so far as it concerns the nature of justice, and is not meant to be a topic of enquiry in and of itself. This is why the analogue is sufficient and defining the Good is not crucial to the argument of the dialogue. This also, being an excellent demonstration of Plato molding the souls of the interlocutors through his "philosophy-at-work" type teachings. ...

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