Abstract

The aim of this study is to give a comprehensive account of Plato's Statesman. In giving such an account, I will employ the method of reading Plato that I am convinced is most appropriate to Plato's method of writing. The fundamental principle of this method is this: the teaching of a Platonic dialogue is to be found in the action of dialogue and not in the words--the words only shed light on the meaning of the action. ;In the course of this dialogue, Plato represents the development in character of Young Socrates. At the beginning of the conversation, Socrates is unable to practice the art of learning through conversation. This inability takes the form of three dialectical vices: laziness, insubordination, and intemperance. When the Eleatic Stranger realizes that Young Socrates is unable to practice this art, he turns his attention from the proposed task of defining the statesman to that of educating Socrates. In the Stranger's own words, this education consists of rendering Socrates "better at learning through conversation and more able to discover the plain truth about things by means of reasonable speech" . The Stranger succeeds in this task, as is evident by Socrates's eventual demonstration of all three of the virtues that he lacks at the beginning of the dialogue. In particular, the Stranger succeeds in combining Socrates's manliness with the dialectical virtue of temperance