J. Angelo Corlett's new book Interpreting Plato Socratically continues the critical discussion
of the Platonic Question where Corlett's book Interpreting Plato's Dialogues concluded. New
arguments in favor of the Mouthpiece Interpretation of Plato's works are considered and shown
to be fallacious as are new objections to some competing approaches to Plato's works.The
Platonic Question is the problem of how to approach and interpret Plato's writings most of
which are dialogues. How if at all can Plato's beliefs doctrines theories and such be
extracted from dialogues where there is no direct indication from Plato that his own views are
even to be found therein? Most philosophers of Plato attempt to decipher from Plato's texts
seemingly all manner of ideas expressed by Socrates which they then attribute to Plato. They
seek to ascribe to Plato particular views about justice art love virtue knowledge and the
like because they believe Socrates is Plato's mouthpiece through the dialogues. But is such
an approach justified? What are the arguments in favor of such an approach? Is there a viable
alternative approach to Plato's dialogues?In this rigorous account of the dominant approach to
Plato's dialogues there is no room left for reasonable doubt about the problematic reasons
given for the notion that Plato's dialogues reveal either Plato's or Socrates' beliefs
doctrines or theories about substantive philosophical matters.Corlett's approach to Plato's
dialogues is applied to a variety of passages throughout Plato's works on a wide range of
topics concerning justice. In-depth discussions of themes such as legal obligation punishment
and compensatory justice are clarified and with some surprising results. Plato's works serve as
a rich source of philosophical thinking about such matters. A central question in today's
Platonic studies is whether Socrates or any other protagonist in the dialogues presents
viewsthat the author wanted to assert or defend. Professor Corlett offers a detailed defense of
his view that the role of Socrates is to raise questions rather than to provide the author's
answers to them. This defense is timely as intellectual historians consider the part played by
Academic scholars centuries after Plato in systematizing Platonism. J. J. Mulhern University
of Pennsylvania
