What Does Socrates Really Mean?

In Plato's dialogues definitions of virtues are offered which seem quite good ones and they're rejected. So often it's hard to see why what works in one context won't work in another. But actually on each occasion the youth approach is one of the best examples where you see what it would get. It doesn't give you the proper answer but it tells you what the conditions for a proper answer. That's the progress isn't it?