In the case of the Parmenides, I thought that I had sufficiently protected myself by saying that the details were not to be pressed. But, if I am required to take Plato's version of Parmenides au pied de la lettre, I can still reply that quite possibly it is historically accurate, that scholars know far less about Parmenides than they could wish, that perhaps they have erred in not taking Plato's testimony into serious account in their reconstruction of the philosophy (...) of Parmenides, and that perhaps Plato's dialogue--in which Parmenides is old--represents a late stage in the development of Parmenides' philosophy whereas the fragments of the poem come from an earlier period. (shrink)

By Burnet's principle I mean the theory that, contrary to the usual belief of scholars in the nineteenth century, the character "Socrates" in the dialogues of Plato is to be regarded not as an idealized figure, not as the mouthpiece for Plato's original philosophical doctrines, but as Plato's accurate representation of the historical Socrates whom he had known.