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Conversation and self-sufficiency in Plato

The second chapter of Conversation and Self-sufficiency in Plato reuses material published in an article of 2005 (‘Character and Consensus in Plato’s Protagoras’, published in the Cambridge Classical Journal). As well as being integrated into the book’s larger framework of argument, the reused material was revised and adapted to include consideration of whether the Protagoras should be considered an ‘apologetic’ dialogue, and what we should understand ‘apologetic’ to mean in Plato’s and Xenophon’s writing; it also spells out more precisely the character of the agreement or consensus that Socrates tries to achieve.

Discusses a wide range of Platonic material, taking into account a large and varied body of secondary literature on the eight dialogues considered most closely. Breaks new ground in its treatment of Plato’s view of interpersonal dependence by relating central texts to the precise way in which philosophical questions, above all those of ethics, epistemology and politics, are explored in the dialogues. Develops complex and original arguments about the conversational nature of Socratic philosophy (including the neglected topic of ‘internal dialogue’) and about Plato’s intellectual development.