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Plato’s Lysis Plato’s Lysis asks the question, “What is friendship”? The entire dialogue is centered on Socrates conversing with Lysis and Menexenus attempting to formulate a common answer to that question. What is amusing about this dialogue is that every time they feel that they have agree on one common response, they examine their answer further, only to discover that no answer seems to be adequate when attempting to determine on the grounds friendship should be based on, and the nature of friendship itself. The subject of friendship seems to have been a much more important in the ancient times than today in the modern world. The very meaning of the word has become slighter and more superficial; it seems almost to be borrowed from the ancients, and has nearly disappeared in modern day. The earliest examples of friendship are to be found chiefly among the Greeks and Romans. It can be argued, also, that questions arising out of the relations of friends have not often been considered seriously in modern times. These questions are, however, brought up in Plato’s Lysis. Socrates wonders whether friendships consist of similar people, dissimilar people, or of both. He also wonders whether such a tie exists between th