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.

Michael Stokes’ previous writings include One and Many in Presocratic Philosophy, Plato’s Socratic Conversations: Drama and Dialectic in Three Dialogues, and Plato’s Apology.

  • By (author) Michael C. Stokes