Dialectic in Action

Plato's Crito examines a single moral decision, whether Socrates ought to escape from his death-cell. Stokes's book discusses Socrates' arguments against Crito's offer of escape. It construes Socrates' questions as genuine questions, which clarify and undermine Critos positions. Stokes's approach avoids the "documentary fallacy"; it shows how Plato catered for both the novice and the experienced reader of his published works. This book offers a fresh account of Socrates' whole strategy. It demonstrates both the shakiness of Socrates' persuasion of the un-philosophical Crito to engage in dialectic, and the coherence of his substantive confutation. Plato's reasoning emerges from Stokes's study with more credit than many have given it. Michael Stokes is Emeritus Professor of Greek at Durham University. He has also taught at Balliol (Oxford) and at Edinburgh, Cornell and Newcastle Universities. His previous writings include One and Many in Presocratic Philosophy, Plato's Socratic Conversations: Drama and Dialectic in Three Dialogues and Plato's Apology.