This book meets the need to revise the standard interpretations of an apparently aporetic
dialogue full of eloquent silences and tricky suggestions as it explores among many other
topics the dramatis personae including Plato's self-references behind the scene and the role
of Socrates on stage the question of method and refutation and the way dialectics plays a part
in the dialogue. More especifically it contains a set of papers devoted to perception and
Plato's criticism of Heraclitus and Protagoras. A section deals with the problem of the
relation between knowledge and thinking including the the aviary model and the possibility of
error. It also emphasizes some positive contributions to the classical Platonic doctrines and
his philosophy of education. The reception of the dialogue in antiquity and the medieval age
closes the analysis. Representing different hermeneutical traditions prestigious scholars
engage with these issues in divergent ways as they shed new light on a complex controversial
work.
