"The drama Nietzsche has written is for the future Greeks." This somber note is the tonic both for the major and minor elements of Alderman’s Nietzsche’s Gift. The "drama" refers to Also Sprach Zarathustra, the central text in Alderman’s interpretation. The intention of placing Nietzsche centrally in the stream of philosophic creation is the minor theme.

The late Jacob Klein’s important book is, remarkably, a lucid presentation of esoteric argument. Dealing with the famed Platonic triad, Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman, Klein settles the dispute about the missing dialogue, "The Philosopher," by first denying that it is missing and second showing that it is unnecessary. He argues, in short, that the triad is a dyad. That argument is reinforced by the distinction Klein strongly implies between the Socratic Theaetetus and the Eleatic Sophist and Statesman. "We can now (...) understand why the conversations of the ‘trilogy’ occur in two, not three, days and why the Sophist, the Statesman, and the Philosopher are dealt with in two, not three, dialogues". (shrink)