"Socratic" vs. "Platonic" Dialectic

Abstract

"Socratic" vs. "Platonic" $ 9 Dmlectlc JULIUS A. ELIAS THE SOCRATICPROBLEMREMAINSINTRACTABLEin the sense that despite innumerable attempts to separate Socrates' and Plato's positions--either by contrast to Xenophon and Aristophanes, or by internal evidence of the Platonic dialogues alone--no consensus has so far been established. Yet the repeated attempts to do so have proven irresistible if only because almost everyone who examines the Platonic corpus becomes convinced at the very least of substantial modifications in the course of Plato's thought--its alleged unity notwithstanding-from what are now more or less universally taken to be the earliest dialogues to the latest. ~ In the area of Plato's poltical philosophy especially, commentators have not hesitated to draw very far-reaching conclusions concerning the Socratic question. Most notable is Karl Popper, who is at pains to preserve Socrates' reputation as a martyr of democracy, if only to strike the harder at Plato's version of the "closed society," no matter whether communist or fascistF I will examine the concept of dialectic in the early and middle dialogues in order to show a distinction between the negative approach taken by Socrates and the much more affirmative rationalistic method favored by Plato, though he may indeed be said to have despaired of it at the last. 8 Most commentators who have addressed themselves to the problem of dialectic in the dialogues have taken a stand against the so-called Burner-Taylor thesis which traces all the features of Platonic thought through the middle dialogues, especially the theory of Forms, to their Socratic, if not earlier, origin, allowing Plato little or no originality or independence of philosophical judgment. 4 While giving no support to this view, Julius Stenzel nonetheless sees no issue as to a "fundamental change in Plato's doctrine" affecting the dialectic until dialogues as late as the Parmenides, Sophist, and Statesman are reached.5 And despite his closer analysis of the earlier dialogues, Richard Robinson relies mainly on Stenzel in attributing to Socrates the developments of dialectic in the No attempt is made in what follows to enter the question of chronology; rather, the broad agreement in the findings of Lutoslawski, Ritter, Campbell, and Robin is taken as a point of departure. The table given in W. D. Ross, Plato's Theory o] Ideas (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951),p. 2, shows both the agreements and the divergencies. The Open Society and Its Enemies (rev. ed.; Princeton, N. J. : Princeton University Press, 1950); cf. pp. 30, 189, 601, and passim, as well as the valuable note on the Socratic problem, pp. 598-605. aFor an interesting variation of this theme, cf. Gregory u "Socratic Knowledge and Platonic Pessimism," Philosophical Review, LXVI (1957), 226-238. 4John Burnet, Greek Philosophy ]rom Thales to Plato (London: Macmillan, 1914),pp. 168-170 ; A. E. Taylor, Plato, The Man and His Work (London: Methuen, 1937), p. 287; and Socrates, The Man and His Thought (New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1953), p. 26. 5Plato's Method o] Dialectic, trans. D. J. Allan (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940), p. 16. [205] 206 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY middle dialogues that belong properly, I think, to Plato2 A. K. Rogers' main criterion for the distinction between Socrates and Plato is the emphasis on Socrates as a "moral sage," as opposed to Plato, who is seen as a "political expert and professional dialectician." 7 There seems to be little doubt that the earliest dialogues are "Socratic" and that the latest are "Platonic," both in their doctrines and methodology. The issue is at what point in between can the appearance of distinctively Platonic features be detected. To find them side by side with Socratic elements need not lead to the exaggerated conclusions, found in the literature of the Socratic problem, that Plato must have "betrayed" Socrates, nor that the gravest doubts must be cast on the veracity or reliability of Plato, Aristotle, or others whose remarks are accepted or rejected according to the exigencies of the argument. I The pattern of "Socratic" dialectic is familiar from the earlier dialogues. Socrates meets his respondent, who by virtue of his function or of some action in which he is engaged, or of some social, political, or...