Dialectic in Action

An Examination of Plato's Crito

by Michael C. Stokes

Book cover: Dialectic in Action

Extent: 246 pages

Publisher: The Classical Press of Wales

Subjects: Classical Studies, Philosophy

Series: Athens

Language: English

(Hardback) (Published)

(December 2005)

ISBN: 9780954384593

6.1 x 9.17 inches

Price: $80.00

In stock

(PDF) (Published)

(December 2005)

ISBN: 9781914535048

Price: $64.00

Plato’s Crito examines a single moral decision, whether Socrates ought to escape from his death-cell. Stokes’ book discusses Socrates’ arguments against Crito’s offer of escape. It construes Socrates’ questions as genuine questions, which clarify and undermine Crito’s positions. Stokes’s approach avoids the ‘documentary fallacy’; it shows how Plato catered for both the novice and the experienced reader of his published works. This book offers a fresh account of Socrates’ whole strategy. It demonstrates both the shakiness of Socrates’ persuasion of the un-philosophical Crito to engage in dialectic, and the coherence of his substantive confutation. Plato’s reasoning emerges from Stokes’ study with more credit than many have given it.

  • By (author) Michael C. Stokes