In this volume, a number of renowned scholars of Plato reflect upon their interpretive methods. Topics covered include the use of ancient authorities in interpreting Plato's dialogues, Plato's literary and rhetorical style, his arguments and characters, and his use of the dialogue form.

Aristotle's criticisms of Plato, Gail Fine; Plato the sceptic, Julia Annas; silence and imitation in the Plato dialogues, L.A. Kosman; Plato and the erotics of narrativity, David M. Halperin; character and meaning in Plato's "Hippias Maior", Mary Whitlock Blundell; analyzing Plato's arguments - Plato and Platonism, S.Marc Cohen and David Keyt; Plato's arguements and the dialogue form, Michael Frede; a Maieutic view of the five late dialogues, Kenneth Sayre.

`Apparently, Smith believes that the approach to Plato based on the questions and methods of 20th century analytic philosophy is not an "ism", or even a definite mode of philosophizing that must stand open to critique, but simply the latest chapter in the age-old progressive narrative of the philosophical sciences. Happily, the exhilarating papers in this volume will, if read, make this conversation-stopping illusion more difficult to sustain.' Bryn Mawr Classical Review 'This first rate collection of ten essays ... shows that something not only new, but interesting, and worthwhile as well can be said. All the essays are carefully written and edited. They marshall their evidence and arguments persuasively. This volume is for the Plato specialist, but will also be of interest to philosophers and historians concerned with hermeneutical issues in general.' Gary E. Kessler, California State University, Religious Studies Review, Volume 20, Number 1, January 1994 'This first rate collection of ten essays, growing out of a conference on methods for interpreting Plato, shows that something not only new, but interesting, and worthwhile as well can be said. All the essays are carefully written and edited. They marshall their evidence and arguments persuasivly.' Gary E. Kessler, California State University, Religious Studies Review, Volume 20, Number 1/January 1994 'All the contributions in the present volume are of a high level, and of considerable interest and importance from this point of view.' G.B. Kerferd, University of Manchester, The Classical Review, Vol. XLIII, No. 2, 1993