The Seventh Platonic Letter describes Plato's attempts to turn the
ruler of Sicily, Dionysius II, into a philosopher ruler along the
lines of the Republic. It explains why Plato turned from politics
to philosophy in his youth and how he then tried to apply his ideas
to actual politics later on. It also sets out his views about
language, writing and philosophy. As such, it represents a
potentially crucial source of information about Plato, who tells us
almost nothing about himself in his dialogues. But is it genuine?
Scholars have debated the issue for centuries, although recent
opinion has moved in its favour. The origin of this book was a
seminar given in Oxford in 2001 by Myles Burnyeat and Michael
Frede, two of the most eminent scholars of ancient philosophy in
recent decades. Michael Frede begins by casting doubt on the Letter
by looking at it from the general perspective of letter writing in
antiquity, when it was quite normal to fabricate letters by famous
figures from the past. Both then attack the authenticity of the
letter head-on by showing how its philosophical content conflicts
with what we find in the Platonic dialogues. They also reflect on
the question of why the Letter was written, whether as an attempt
to exculpate Plato from the charge of meddling in politics (Frede),
or as an attempt to portray, through literary means, the ways in
which human weakness and emotions can lead to disasters in
political life (Burnyeat).
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