Plato's Dialogues

Most of Plato's philosophical writing takes the form of dialogues.  It is believed that all forty-two of the dialogues that Plato wrote have survived.  These dialogues were written for educated laymen (as opposed to the elite in his academy) in order to interest them in philosophy (Taylor 10).   To sum up their common characteristics, Plato's dialogues:

• are philosophical discussions between two or more participants.
• usually focus on a specific theme:  e.g., justice, friendship, piety.
• are written for the most part like regular conversations, which often include digressions and frequently are inconclusive.

Plato's dialogues are not just great works of philosophy; they are also recognized as great literary works as well.  He goes to much effort to carefully set the scene of each dialogue and to develop the personalities of each of the characters in them.  One is frequently amazed at just how dramatic many of these dialogues are, considering their lofty topics. 

Plato's dialogues can be divided into three periods:

As has already been pointed out , Plato uses Socrates as the main interlocutor in his dialogues.  The specific way that Plato makes use of the character of Socrates varies somewhat during the different periods in which Plato wrote.

In the early dialogues the Socrates that Plato presents to the reader is probably close to the historic Socrates.  Socrates is portrayed in these dialogues as precisely what he was in real life—a gadfly, whose aim was to make people recognize that many of their beliefs are baseless.  The Socrates of these early dialogues claims to be ignorant of everything except his own ignorance, and as such rarely presents his own position on the topics being discussed.  Plato's aim, then, in these early dialogues primarily, is critical:  that is, to tear apart the inadequate moral views of others.

In the middle dialogues, Plato is coming into his own as a philosopher and is starting to develop some of his own metaphysical and epistemological positions.   It is during this period that Plato begins to introduce his theory of the forms into his writings.  In the late dialogues, Plato uses Socrates almost exclusively to advance his own views.  His approach in these dialogues is essentially constructive---that is, to develop his own mature philosophical system.    

The Republic is an interesting work because in it we get the best of both the early and later dialogues.  Book one is written as a traditional dialogue in which Socrates is represented in a fairly historical way, critically reacting to the views of others in the dialogue.   But the rest of the text ( Books 2-10) is much more of a monologue in which Socrates serves as little more than a mouth-piece for Plato's own political views.

 more information about Plato's dialogues

Department of Philosophy   |   Sophia Project   |  Philosophy of Plato

© 2000, M. Russo       For more information contact: mrusso@molloy.edu