=The Logical Expedients of Socrates.= The examination of concepts by Socrates was an attempt to find a logical “Nature,” just as the Cosmologists had searched physical phenomena to find a physical “Nature.” This makes Socrates the first to teach by induction and one of the first to use definition effectively. In contrast to the Sophists, he tried to give words exact meanings; for the Sophists fixed artificial meanings to words with reference to particular objects. In seeking for the exact meaning, Socrates was looking below the changing particulars to the “Nature” of the fact and the universal principle. Thus he was making his hearers conscious of the logical dependence of the particular upon the universal. The universal is that which is common to all particular conceptions or opinions. It lies beneath them and binds them together. Thus, by logical analysis, Socrates is taking steps in the educational process of gaining the universal. Provisional definition would be given by him in some dialogue; this definition would be tried by many facts; thus an advance would be made toward a true definition and a universal principle. This process is that of induction. It leads to generic concepts by comparison of particular views and individual perceptions, by bringing together analogous cases and allied relations. The subordination of the particular under the universal thus became a principle of science. However imperfect and childlike was Socrates’ method of procedure, whatever lack of caution in generalization and in the collection of material, however hasty oftentimes his judgments, he nevertheless made the subordination of the particular to the universal a principle of logical procedure. Xenophon says that Socrates was untiring in his efforts to examine and define goodness and wickedness, justice and injustice, wisdom and folly, courage and cowardice, the state and the citizen.