Six Dialogues “Reflections on Plato”

Few other authors in the history of Western philosophy can compare with Plato in the depth and range of his work. His dialogues have long highly esteemed in their treatment of justice, virtue, and love, as well as political, religious, and other social concerns. Socrates is most often the protagonist in the dialogues with his dialectic method of inquiry, a rigorous conversation consisting of short questions that lead to the heart of any matter. At odds with Socrates are the sophists, teachers whose mastery of rhetoric, the art of persuasion, seeks to convince the listeners to accept their propositions without critical inquiry. Each of the “Six Dialogues” is a reflection on one aspect of Plato’s dialogues: The Dialectic, Hymn to Love, Virtue, Rhetoric, Justice, and The Sophists.