ABSTRACT

Reading Plato offers a concise and illuminating insight into the complexities and difficulties of the Platonic dialogues, providing an invaluable text for any student of Plato's philosophy.
Taking as a starting point the critique of writing in the Phaedrus -- where Socrates argues that a book cannot choose its reader nor can it defend itself against misinterpretation -- Reading Plato offers solutions to the problems of interpreting the dialogues. In this ground-breaking book, Thomas A. Szlezak persuasively argues that the dialogues are designed to stimulate philosophical enquiry and to elevate philosophy to the realm of oral dialectic.

chapter 1|2 pages

THE JOY OF READING PLATO

chapter 2|2 pages

THE READER PARTICIPATES

chapter 3|2 pages

AN EXAMPLE OF INDIVIDUAL RECEPTION

chapter 5|5 pages

ONE DOES NOT SEE WHAT ONE DOES NOT KNOW

chapter 6|2 pages

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLATONIC DIALOGUES

chapter 7|3 pages

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CHARACTERISTICS

chapter 8|2 pages

FOR WHOM IS PLATO WRITING?

chapter 10|3 pages

AN ANCIENT THEORY OF INTERPRETATION

chapter 12|6 pages

THE CRITIQUE OF WRITING IN THE PHAEDRUS

chapter 14|3 pages

The meaning of τιµιώτερα

chapter 17|7 pages

SOME ‘GAPS’

chapter 21|2 pages

IRONY

chapter 22|3 pages

MYTH