Plato's Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues

摘要

Zucker engages in this task by determining the internal dramatic chronology of the Platonic portrayal of the life of Socrates in the dialogues, which she divides into basically five periods: a preSocratic phase from 460-433, which includes the Laws and the Parmenides, which involves Socrates' turn from the study of nature to the examination of speeches; a second period extending from 433-420, in which Socrates interrogates his contemporaries about the noble and good, presented in the Protagoras, Alcibiades 1 and 2, Charmides, Laches, Hippias Major, and Hippias Minor; a third period from 416-409 in which Socrates enunciated his positive doctrine, involving the dialogues Symposium, Phaedrus, Ion, Clitophon, Republic, Philebus; and the challenge presented in the Timaeus and Critias; a fourth period from 409-401 in which Socratic practice is exhibited, involving the dialogues Theages, Euthydemus, Lysis, Gorgias, and Meno; and finally a fifth period (399), in which Socrates faces the challenges of the Eleatic Stranger and in which there is a presentation of his trial and death, involving the dialogues, Theatetus, Euthyphro, Cratylus, Sophist, Statesman, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo. There is finally a remarkable conclusion in two parts, which Zucker entitles "Why Plato Made Socrates His Hero," in which Zucker discusses the Menexenus, dramatic date, 387-386, understood as Plato's presentation of Socrates' posthumous political legacy and a final account of Socrates in light of Plato's other philosophers.