Agora, Academy, and the Conduct of Philosophy

A detailed criticism of some of the assumptions scholars have brought to bear in beginning the process of (Platonic) interpretation. This study offers a way to group the dialogues, based on 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 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.