Form and Argument in Late Plato

by Gill, Christopher; McCabe, Mary Margaret

• ISBN13: 9780198240129
• ISBN10: 0198240120
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-05-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Why did Plato put his philosophical arguments into dialogues, rather than presenting them in a plain and readily understandable fashion? A group of distinguished scholars here offer answers to this question by studying the relation between form and argument in his late dialogues. These penetrating studies show that the literary structure of the dialogues is of vital importance in the ongoing interpretation of Plato.

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	ix
Note on Conventions	xi
Introduction	1	(4)
Christopher Gill
Margaret Mccabe
Unity in the Parmenides: The Unity of the Parmenides	5	(44)
Mary Margaret McCabe
Likeness and Likenesses in the Parmenides	49	(30)
Malcolm Schofield
Three Platonist Interpretations of the Theatetus	79	(26)
David Sedley
Conflicting Appearances: Theatetus 153d-154b	105	(30)
Gail Fine
The Literary Form of the Sophist	135	(18)
Michael Frede
The Politicus: Structure and Form	153	(26)
Christopher Rowe
Space, Time, Shape, and Direction: Creative Discourse in the Timaeus	179	(34)
Catherine Osborne
The Hedonist's Conversion: The Role of Socrates in the Philebus	213	(36)
Dorothea Frede
Reading the Laws	249	(34)
Christopher Bobonich
Afterword: Dialectic and the Dialogue Form in Late Plato	283	(30)
Christopher Gill
Bibliography	313	(12)
Index of Ancient Passages	325	(12)
General Index	337