ABSTRACT
Since Schleiermacher’s discovery that for Plato form is not inessential for content, the interpretation of Plato has been faced with the task of examining the dialogues’ dramatic technique both as a whole and in individual detail. Unfortunately, it cannot be said that research has made much progress in completing this task. Nevertheless, particular dramaturgical techniques, like the change of interlocutor, and particular recurrent motifs, like the appeal to sayings of poets, have been described repeatedly. But one motif has remained as good as disregarded, although it should have warranted precise description and interpretation on the grounds of its peculiarity and its need of explanation, but above all on the grounds of its prominence in Plato’s works. I mean the motif of concealment and the intentional withholding of knowledge.
