Agora, Academy, and the Conduct of Philosophy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. A Metaphilosophical Task

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Introduction

      • Debra Nails

      Pages 3-7

   3. The Socratic Problem

      • Debra Nails

      Pages 8-31

   4. The Platonic Question

      • Debra Nails

      Pages 32-50

3. The Developmental Hypothesis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 51-51

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   2. The Early Middle Late Consensus: How Deep? How Broad?

      • Debra Nails

      Pages 53-68

   3. The Content of the Dialogues

      • Debra Nails

      Pages 69-96

   4. Stylometric Investigations

      • Debra Nails

      Pages 97-114

   5. Thesleff’s Philological Undermining of Developmentalism

      • Debra Nails

      Pages 115-135

4. Havelock’ Hypothesis: Plato Overturns the Oral Tradition

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 137-137

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   2. Socrates Oralist, Plato Textualist

      • Debra Nails

      Pages 139-157

   3. Literacy in Fifth Century Athens

      • Debra Nails

      Pages 158-178

   4. The Anthropological Evidence and Where It Falls

      • Debra Nails

      Pages 179-191

5. The Conduct of Philosophy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 193-193

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   2. Socrates in the Agora

      • Debra Nails

      Pages 195-212

   3. Plato in the Academy

      • Debra Nails

      Pages 213-235

6. Back Matter

   Pages 237-267

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Agora, Academy, and the Conduct of Philosophy offers extremely careful and detailed criticisms of some of the most important assumptions scholars have brought to bear in beginning the process of (Platonic) interpretation. It goes on to offer a new way to group the dialogues, based on important facts in the lives and philosophical practices of Socrates - the main speaker in most of Plato's dialogues - and of Plato himself. Both sides of Debra Nails's arguments deserve close attention: the negative side, which exposes a great deal of diversity in a field that often claims to have achieved a consensus; and the positive side, which insists that we must attend to what we know of these philosophers' lives and practices, if we are to make a serious attempt to understand why Plato wrote the way he did, and why his writings seem to depict different philosophies and even different approaches to philosophizing.
From the Preface by Nicholas D. Smith.

• Plato
• Socrates
• bibliography
• dialogue
• interpret
• literacy
• philosophy
• tradition
• writing

` Nails offers us a challenging and useful book.'
Anciet Philosophy 19 (1999)

• Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, USA

  Debra Nails

Policies and ethics