For Plato, the best method of discovering truth is the dialectic (in Greek, elenchus), the kind of question and answer format favored by Socrates. Not incidentally, the dialectic is in fact a theme of the Protagoras, and Socrates makes a number of arguments to demonstrate that it is indeed the best way to do philosophy. Socrates states that the dialectic tests both the opinions under review and the people who express those opinions; thus, it deals with abstract argument at the same time that it grounds that abstraction in real figures. Plato’s dialogues do much the same thing; in the same moment that they treat difficult questions of great philosophical importance, they are also dramatic texts representing real people. This ability to represent psychological conflict and abstruse reasoning simultaneously is as much a feature of the dialectic as the back-and-forth motion set up by the frequent questions.