With a new preface and updated bibliography

Originally published by Routledge in 1988, this pioneering collection of essays now features a new preface and updated bibliography by the editor, reflecting the most significant developments in Plato scholarship during the past decade.

Praise for the original edition:

"This book is a valuable and long overdue collection of essays which address a central issue in the reading of Platonic texts: the question of why Plato wrote dialogues, and what that fact means for our interpretation of Plato. Views on this issue inform, in one way or another, all our readings of Plato, and this work performs the valuable service of collecting a wide range of essays which deal explicitly with the question. Some of the essays are explicitly methodological; others give readings of Platonic dialogues which are sensitive to the fact that they are dialogues. The second half of the work consists of an interesting and very valuable series of exchanges between readers of Plato which concern the question of the dialogues as dialogues." —L. A. Kosman, Haverford College

From reviews of the original edition:

"The essays in this collection are provocative, even daring on occasion, yet at all times maintain a remarkably high standard of scholarship. Although the essays and exchanges focus historically on Plato, they also engage several larger issues of interpretation, authority, and textuality. This volume should therefore be relevant not only for specialists in ancient philosophy but for scholars of literature, literary theory, hermeneutics, and the humanities in general." —The Review of Metaphysics

"Griswold's book is a welcome addition to the current literature. The contributions are for the most part of high quality and are both thoughtful and stimulating." —Ancient Philosophy