ABSTRACT
It Is generally agreed that Plato (427-347 B.C.) was one of the greatest and most influential thinkers of antiquity. His thoughts have come down to us for the most part in a series of twenty-six dialogues, in the majority of which his teacher Socrates (469-399 B.C.) is the principal speaker. It is true that some scholars-notably the late Professors John Burnet and A.E.Taylor-held that the dialogues in which Socrates is the principal speaker are substantially accurate records of the theories and arguments of Socrates himself, and that only the last dialogues, such as the Statesman, Timæus, and Laws, in which Socrates does not appear, describe the theories of Plato. On the whole, howeveiy this interpretation has not been generally accepted, and in this chapter the theories expounded by Socrates in the Republic will, in accordance with the usual practice, be referred to as Plato’s theories. Even if some of these theories were originally advanced by Socrates, it seems reasonable to assume that Plato would not have expounded them in such detail unless he had accepted them as being, in the main, both true and important; and it is hardly likely that, when expounding these theories, Plato would not modify them in the light of his own critical reflections.
