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INTRODUCTIONdown to the very same knowledge entailed in Socratic ignorance, namely, that
he knows what he doesn’t know.
- This list could include Cephalus, Polemarchus, Lysis, Agathon, Meno,
Meletus, and many more. Perhaps most prominently, Socrates uses the play on
Meletus’ name (which means “blockhead” and is cognate with the word for
“care” or “concern”) as the fulcrum for his counteroffensive against his accus-
er’s carelessness respecting the charges, the truth, and the youth whom he ac-
cuses Socrates of corrupting. - For an excellent example of Plato’s use of the prologue, see Fran-
cisco J. Gonzalez, “How to Read a Platonic Prologue: Lysis 203a– 207d,” in Plato
as Author: The Rhetoric of Philosophy, ed. Ann N. Michelini (Cincinnati: E. J. Brill,
2002), 15– 44. - In this connection, see, for example, Holger Thesleff, “Looking for
Clues: An Interpretation of Some Literary Aspects of Plato’s ‘Two-Level’ Model,”
in Plato’s Dialogues: New Studies and Interpretations, ed. Gerald A. Press (Lanham:
Rowman and Littlefi eld, 1993). - See Thomas M. Robinson, “The Dissoi Logoi and Early Greek Skepti-
cism,” in Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy VI: Before Plato, ed. Anthony Preus
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001), 159. Robinson suggests that
the possibility exists that the Dissoi Logoi or one of many similar manuals of so-
phistical refutation in circulation at the time were read by Socrates and Plato. - Charles Kahn details what we know of eight authors of sokratikoi lo-
goi in his Plato and the Socratic Dialogue: The Philosophical Use of a Literary Form
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). K ahn examines what is known
about Antisthines, Phaedo, Eucleides, Aristippus, Aeschines, and Xenophon,
in addition to Plato. - See especially the last few pages of chapter 2, “Missing Socrates,” in Jay
Farness, Missing Socrates: Problems of Plato’s Writing (University Park: Pennsylva-
nia State University Press, 1991). - Pierre Hadot, What Is Ancient Philosophy? trans. Michael Chase (Cam-
bridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2002), 24. - Diskin Clay reminds us that the second edition (1970) of the Oxford
Classical Dictionary contains an entry on “Plato” authored by two different Ox-
ford philosophers, one of whom ( J. D. Denniston) writes one numbered section
on Plato’s “style,” while the other (Richard Robinson) writes fi fteen numbered
sections on Plato’s arguments. In the third edition (1996) of the Oxford Classi-
cal Dictionary, however, the article on “Plato” makes no mention of his style or
form, and it is telling that this article was written by Julia Annas, the past presi-
dent of the Pacifi c Division of the American Philosophical Association. Thus is
the state of the question today. See Diskin Clay, Platonic Questions: Dialogues with the
Silent Philosopher (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000), xi. - Cited in Hadot, What Is Ancient Philosophy? 65. This seems overstated or
oversimplifi ed. It is not that one must choose either to form oneself or else to
learn the teachings of the school, but rather that the teachings of the various
schools underwrite the school’s practices or spiritual exercises.