Abstract

I begin this study by examining some of the flaws inherent in the methodology of three major schools of Platonic scholarship: The esotericists, the skeptics and the developmentalists. In addition to proceeding on other dubious or false assumptions, all three of these schools focus their attention on attempting to divine Plato's own philosophical theories, and in doing so they wrongly assume that such an attempt is a desirable or even possible goal. ;Instead of attempting to decipher the texts to find Plato's theories, I look to the texts themselves to find what else they have to offer. Plato's choice of the dialogue form points to the importance of methodology in his philosophy, and his choice to feature Socrates in almost all of his works demonstrates the importance of that character as well. I therefore look to Socrates and his method in themselves in order to understand what Plato's works can teach modern readers. ;I first examine the character of Socrates himself in order to determine his principles, goals and beliefs. Socrates often reveals beliefs about which he seems certain, and these beliefs turn out to be key to his methodology. Socrates, I argue, believes that each person has within him beliefs which reflect the truth. In addition, Socrates maintains that for any given person, the more dearly he holds a belief, the closer that belief must be to the truth. A belief which is very dearly held is therefore likely to be quite close to the truth. ;Socrates helps his interlocutors and himself examine these beliefs by employing the elenchus. By constantly comparing beliefs on a subject and repeatedly deducing the consequences of those beliefs, Socrates and his companions can come to recognize which beliefs conflict. By consistently rejecting the beliefs which conflict with more dearly held beliefs, Socrates and his interlocutors can gradually purge themselves of false beliefs. They can also come to understand the connections between their true beliefs, thus moving closer to knowledge, for only when a belief has been tied down by being connected to a dearly held belief will Socrates call that belief knowledge