The Socratic method of questioning and refutation (elenchus) predominates the early Platonic
dialogues. But things change in the middle dialogues as Socrates goes beyond merely asking
questions and begins to provide answers to his questions. And the method virtually disappears
in the late dialogues. The standard explanation of this phenomenon is that the early dialogues
were intended to commemorate Socrates and the elenchus while in the middle and late dialogues
Plato went beyond Socrates to present his own mature philosophical thought. In this book
Matthews revises this explanation by uncovering the shortcomings that Plato came to find in the
Socratic method and the reasons why Plato lost interest in it.
