He laid the same requirement upon others that he did upon himself. The dialectic conversation could not be successfully carried on unless his interlocutors had the same recognition of self-ignorance,――the same measure of self-knowledge. The Sophists with whom he often carried on his discussions laid claim to knowledge on every known subject under the Greek sun and were ready to teach anything to the Greek youth. To Socrates’ mind nothing could more impede his undertakings than such an affectation of wisdom; to the Sophists nothing could be more repugnant than such a confession which Socrates always obliged them to make. Although professing to be only a seeker for knowledge, he tried first by his questions to scrutinize and to break down with his exasperating logic the half-formed conceptions of the egotist. This clear-cut analysis for purely destructive purposes, which he used in preparation for his later constructive conversation, is called the _Socratic irony_. As he proved himself superior to any of his companions in the use of the dialectic, he could begin his conversations in the most destructive fashion. His method was destructive of all prejudice and preconceived opinion that would in any way stand athwart perfectly free inquiry into the truth. His wish was to begin _de novo_ with every one, so that all traditional beliefs having been given up and the investigators having confessed their ignorance, constructive study of the concept in hand could be begun. The second step in Socrates’ method of dialectical inquiry follows upon the initial destructive criticism. It is in this part of the conversation that we find his own constructive theory. The dialogue is, of course, its necessary condition; for the truth is not in me nor in thee, but in us all. It is latent in the mind and not on the surface of any opinion. Let us rub our minds together. Let us sift our varied concepts, unfold our real selves, and bring the unborn truth to the light. Our ideas supplement one another and have a common ground. Intellectual intercourse is an intellectual and a personal need, for it reveals common sympathies and a oneness of life. Common love of knowledge makes friends, and this mutual intellectual helpfulness he calls by the mythical term _Eros_. Inquiry is indefinite in duration; the quest of truth is endless; and Socrates acknowledges by his fresh beginnings again and again his failure to reach the ideal. Thus the theoretical self-abnegation of Socrates had a twofold significance in his constructive philosophy. On the one hand, it was an invitation to his countrymen to help him in his search for the universal truth; on the other, it was an acknowledgment that he had failed to attain that universal truth.