This study focuses on Laches, Protagoras, and the conversation between Socrates and Agathon in the Symposium. For these dialogues the author "proposes a strategy of interpretation that insists on the dialogues' essentially interrogatory character. . . . Stokes argues that we are not entitled to ascribea thesis to Socrates (far less to Plato) unless he unambiguously asserts it as his own belief. . . . For the most part, Stokes argues, Socrates is doing what he claims to be doing: cross-examining his interlocutor. He draws the materials of his own argument from the respondent's explicit admissions and from his own knowledge of the respondent's character, commitments and ways of life.What is shown by such a procedure is not, . . . according to Stokes], that acertain thesis is true or false, but, rather, that a certain sort of person, with certain commitments, can be led, on pain of inconsistency, to assent to theses that at first seem alien to him. Sometimes, as it turns out, these are theses that Socrates also endorses in his own person." "Times Literary Supplement"

This book, first published in 1992, introduces some of Socrates' problems and some of the problems about him. It seeks at the same time to advance new views, arguments and information on Socrates' mission, techniques, ethics and later reception. From civil disobedience to ethics, this collection provides stimulating discussions of Socrates' life, thought and historical significance.

This book, first published in 1992, introduces some of Socrates' problems and some of the problems about him. It seeks at the same time to advance new views, arguments and information on Socrates' mission, techniques, ethics and later reception. From civil disobedience to ethics, this collection provides stimulating discussions of Socrates' life, thought and historical significance.

Plato's Apology (Defence) of Socrates is a masterpiece of ancient rhetoric which philosophically illustrates in practice and illuminates in principle Plato's version of Socrates' dialectical method. This edition aims not merely to present and combine valuable research but to develop it further. The editor is more sceptical than some recent researchers of the historical accuracy of Plato's version of Socrates' defence, and offers an account of the Apology as a work of Plato's own art. [Greek text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.]