The art of Plato
Subtitle: ten essays in Platonic interpretation
By: R.B. Rutherford.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 335
Subjects: Plato.
Description: This book is not a study of Plato's philosophy, but a contribution to the literary interpretation of the dialogues, through analysis of their formal structure, characterisation, language and imagery. Among the dialogues considered in these interrelated essays are some of Plato's most admired and influential works, including the Gorgias, the Symposium, the Republic and the Phaedrus.

Special attention is paid to the personality of Socrates, Plato's remarkable mentor, and to his interaction with the other characters in the dialogues. Rutherford also includes detailed discussion of particular problems such as the sources for our knowledge of Socrates, the origins of the dialogue form, Plato's use of myth, and the 'totalitarianism' of the Republic. The combination of sympathetic literary criticism with exact historical scholarship gives The Art of Plato its special qualities.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [314]-324) and index.