Abstract

Starting from Plato's statement in the Seventh Letter that Plato never intended to write down his philosophy in systematic form, Sinaiko conceives of the dialogues as attempts to combine the power of the spoken word with the written word while avoiding the limitations of either. Dramatic form and philosophic content are interdependent. The three dialogues are interrogated for statements about dialectic, and each dialogue's account of dialectic is taken to be complete in itself. It is not simply a dialectical method which Plato is using; Being itself is dialectical, and there is no final philosophical system but rather an "infinite multiplicity of systems." While it is certain that philosophy for Plato can not be separated from the activity of philosophizing, Sinaiko's claim is far more controversial: that each dialogue "sets forth a complete ontology, an entire philosophical system." One might well disagree with that contention and other more detailed points of interpretation. But Sinaiko's position is defended ably and his book has a philosophical vitality which sets it apart from the usual pedantic efforts to expose this or that Platonic argument.—D. J. B.