Plato’s Progress

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Did Plato abandon the Theory of Forms in the later stages of his philosophical development, or not? In the last ten or fifteen years, particularly in England, it has been increasingly argued that towards the end of his life Plato jettisoned the Forms as so much metaphysical lumber, and turned to conceptual analysis such as we find in the Theaetetus and Sophist. This view of Plato's development runs full tilt into the commonly accepted view of the order of the dialogues; in particular, the prominent role allotted to the Forms in Letter VII and the Timaeus ; both supposedly late works, threatens to wreck the new interpretation completely. Professor Ryle now offers us, in the most radical and exciting book on Plato to appear for many a long year, a general reinterpretation of Plato's life and thought, and a revised chronology of his writings. Source: https://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/rbph_0035-0818_1967_num_45_2_2685_t1_0494_0000_1.pdf Cover 1 Copyright Page 2 Contents 3 Chapter I: The Disorders 7 1. Aristotle and Plato 7 2. Plato 13 3. Conclusion 25 Chapter II: The Publication of Dialogues 27 1. Book-Reading 27 2. The recitation of dialogues 29 3. Games-Audiences 38 4. The mammoth dialogues 50 Chapter III: Plato and Sicily 61 1. Who invited Plato to come to Syracuse in 367? 61 2. What were Isocrates, Plato, etc., invited for? 65 3. The real Dion 74 4. The forger 88 5. Plato's third visit to Sicily 90 6. Aristotle and Sicily 96 Chapter IV: Dialectic 108 1. Foreword 108 2. Aristotle's 'Art of Dialectic' 109 3. The earlier history of dialectic 116 4. Plato's dialectic vis-à-vis eristic 132 5. The minor values of dialectic 135 6. The philosophical value of dialectic 138 7. Conclusion 150 Chapter V: The Crisis 152 1. The charges against Socrates 152 2. The charges against 'Socrates' 154 3. Evidence 160 4. Plato's co-defendants 188 5. Epilogue 197 Chapter VI: The Disappearance of the Eristic Dialogue 199 1. The abandonment of the elenchus 199 2. The organization of the eristic moot 202 3. The minuting of debates 205 4. Dialogues and the minutes of debates 206 5. Why the eristic dialogue vanished 210 6. From eristic to philosophy 211 7. Eristic and the Theory of Forms 217 Chapter VII: The Timetable 222 1. Foreword 222 2. The eristic dialogues 223 3. The 'Apology' and the 'Crito' 226 4. The foundation of the Academy 228 5. The 'Phaedo' and the 'Symposium' 232 6. The 'Critias' 236 7. The 'Timaeus' 244 8. The 'Republic' 250 9. The 'Philebus' 257 10. The 'Laws' 262 11. The 'Phaedrus' 265 12. The 'Cratylus' 278 13. The 'Theatetus' 281 14. The 'Sophist' 286 15. The 'Politicus' 291 16. The 'Parmenides' 292 Hypothesis A 294 Hypothesis B 295 17. A Stylometric difficulty 301 Acknowledgements 307 Index 309