Re-Reading Plato: The Problem of Platonic Chronology

Abstract

IT HAS LONG BEEN a scholarly commonplace that we possess at least a rough knowledge of the chronology of the Platonic dialogues, and that this information is essential to our understanding of the philosophic significance of Plato's writings because it allows us to trace crucial changes in his thought. The assumptions and arguments that underlie our basic chronological distinctions, as well as our conviction of their fundamental interpretative importance, were introduced and defended during the nineteenth century. Perhaps inevitably, the passage of time has muffled old debates, while transforming what were once novel theses into the familiar sediment of our intellectual inheritance.