Platonism · c. 428/427–348/347 BCE

Plato

Learning to see beyond appearances.

Athens, Greece

Portraits: artistic interpretations

Bibliography

Return to the texts.

Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.

Bibliographic scope

Coverage: the thirty-five dialogue/speech titles and thirteen-letter collection of the traditional nine tetralogies, plus Definitions, a named seven-text spurious appendix and an attributed-poetry dossier. Multibook works remain single works. Disputed attributions are explicit; the appendix groups short texts but names every member. The letter index is complete for the verified thirteen-letter Perseus/Bury edition, not for all letters Plato ever wrote. The poetry index covers only eleven epigrams verified in Diogenes Laertius III.29–33; lost poems, all Anthology attributions and testimonia about unwritten teaching are not a complete fragment edition.

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01

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Euthyphro

Outside the court where Socrates will face an impiety charge, Euthyphro prepares to prosecute his own father. His certainty about religious duty becomes the starting point for an inquiry into what makes an action pious.

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02

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Apology of Socrates

Socrates defends his questioning before an Athenian jury, considers a penalty after conviction, and addresses those who condemned or acquitted him. Plato makes a public trial an examination of knowledge, integrity and the value of living.

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03

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Crito

Crito visits the condemned Socrates with a practical escape plan. Their conversation tests whether friends, reputation and family obligations justify leaving prison, then introduces the Laws as speakers demanding an account of civic commitment.

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04

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Phaedo

Phaedo recounts Socrates’ final conversation about death, the soul and philosophical preparation. Arguments for survival are challenged by the images of a lyre’s harmony and a weaver’s worn cloaks, before an account of explanation reframes the inquiry.

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05

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Cratylus

Hermogenes treats names as conventions, while Cratylus expects an intrinsically correct relation between words and things. Socrates tests both accounts through extravagant etymologies, comparisons with craft and the possibility that a name can represent something badly.

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06

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Theaetetus

A young mathematician proposes that knowledge is perception, then true judgment, then true judgment with an account. Socrates tests each proposal through discussions of Protagoras, perceptual change, false belief and the puzzling requirements of explanation.

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07

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Sophist

An Eleatic visitor and Theaetetus try to define the sophist. Their divisions of expertise lead to a harder puzzle: how can false speech or deceptive images exist if speaking of what is not seems impossible?

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08

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Statesman

The Eleatic visitor and young Socrates distinguish political expertise from neighbouring activities. A cosmic myth corrects the image of the ruler as shepherd, while weaving eventually supplies a model for joining contrasting temperaments within a city.

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09

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Parmenides

A young Socrates defends Forms before Parmenides, who raises objections about participation, regress and the separation of knowledge. The second half conducts a demanding series of deductions about what follows if the One is or is not.

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10

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Philebus

Socrates and Protarchus compare pleasure with intelligence as candidates for the good life. Neither an unconscious life of enjoyment nor an entirely pleasureless intellect proves sufficient; the inquiry asks which mixture deserves choice and what orders it.

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11

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Symposium

Guests at Agathon’s celebration give competing speeches about eros. Socrates reports Diotima’s teaching on desire, generation and beauty, before Alcibiades interrupts with an intimate portrait that tests how philosophy appears in a difficult human relationship.

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12

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Phaedrus

Outside Athens, Phaedrus reads a speech urging a youth to favour a non-lover. Socrates answers twice, first competing rhetorically and then praising divine madness; the discussion turns to persuasion, the soul, dialectic and the limitations of writing.

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13

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Alcibiades I

Socrates confronts Alcibiades’ ambition to guide Athens before he has examined his competence or himself. Questions about justice, advantage and political rivals lead toward the provocative claim that caring for oneself requires understanding the soul.

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14

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Alcibiades II

As Alcibiades approaches prayer, Socrates asks whether people know what they should request from the gods. Examples of disastrous wishes expose the gap between acquiring a desired outcome and understanding whether it would actually benefit its recipient.

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15

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Hipparchus

A conversation about the love of gain asks whether everyone seeks profit and whether apparently shameful gains truly count as benefits. A central story portrays the Athenian Hipparchus as an educator and patron whose sayings instructed travellers.

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16

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Rival Lovers

Two rival admirers disagree about philosophy while watching young men discuss a geometrical problem. Socrates challenges the cultured lover’s equation of philosophy with broad learning and asks what distinctive expertise the philosopher can actually contribute.

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17

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Theages

Demodocus brings his son Theages to Socrates because the young man wants the wisdom needed for political leadership. The conversation distinguishes ruling from tyranny and eventually presents Socratic companionship as dependent on a mysterious divine sign.

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18

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Charmides

Returning from military service, Socrates meets the beautiful Charmides and asks whether he also possesses moderation. The search moves from quiet behaviour and modesty to doing one’s own work, self-knowledge and a proposed knowledge of knowledge itself.

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19

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Laches

Two fathers consult the generals Laches and Nicias about training their sons in armed combat. Socrates asks what the proposed education should improve and directs the conversation toward courage, which experienced soldiers struggle to define.

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20

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Lysis

In a wrestling school, Socrates speaks with Lysis and Menexenus about friendship while an anxious admirer listens. The conversation tries similarity, opposition, usefulness and desire as explanations, but none straightforwardly captures why someone becomes dear to another.

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21

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Euthydemus

The brothers Euthydemus and Dionysodorus display arguments designed to defeat any answer, while Socrates offers an alternative conversation with the young Clinias. The contrast explores what separates an invitation to philosophy from verbal combat that discourages learning.

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22

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Protagoras

A young admirer brings Socrates to the celebrated teacher Protagoras. Their encounter asks whether virtue can be taught and whether its parts form a unity, alternating a foundation myth, political argument, poetry interpretation and tightly managed questioning.

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23

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Gorgias

Socrates questions Gorgias about rhetoric, Polus about successful wrongdoing, and Callicles about the life of unrestricted desire. Their escalating dispute asks whether persuasive power and political success can benefit a person whose soul remains disordered.

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24

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Meno

Meno asks whether virtue can be taught, but Socrates first requests a definition. Their failure produces the paradox of inquiry, answered through recollection and a geometrical exchange with an enslaved boy, before they return to virtue and political judgment.

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25

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Hippias Major

Socrates asks the accomplished sophist Hippias what beauty itself is. Beautiful people, gold, usefulness and pleasures of sight and hearing become candidates, but each must explain a common character rather than merely provide attractive examples.

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26

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Hippias Minor

A dispute over whether Achilles or Odysseus is the better Homeric hero leads Socrates and Hippias into questions about truthfulness, skill and voluntary wrongdoing. The argument reaches the disturbing suggestion that the better agent can do wrong deliberately.

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27

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Ion

Ion, a successful performer of Homer, claims special understanding of his favourite poet. Socrates asks why genuine expertise would stop at one author, then describes a magnetic chain linking divine inspiration, poet, performer and audience.

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28

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Menexenus

Socrates delivers a funeral oration supposedly learned from Aspasia, combining praise of Athens with consolation for bereaved families. The polished civic speech sits inside an ironic conversation about how public rhetoric can make listeners feel magnificently elevated.

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29

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Clitophon

Clitophon praises Socrates for awakening a desire for justice but complains that exhortation never supplies the knowledge needed to practise it. He asks whether Socratic questioning is a complete education or only a powerful beginning.

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30

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Republic

Beginning with a dispute over justice, Socrates constructs a city in speech to examine the organization of the soul. Education, political power, gender, poetry, knowledge and desire enter an argument that asks why justice should be chosen for itself.

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31

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Timaeus

Timaeus offers a likely account of the cosmos, describing an ordering craftsman, the world soul, time, geometrical elements and living bodies. The inquiry joins mathematical intelligibility to the claim that rational order works with the constraints of necessity.

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32

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Critias

Critias recounts the institutions of ancient Athens and the wealth and power of Atlantis, contrasting disciplined civic order with an increasingly corrupted imperial society. The transmitted dialogue breaks off just as Zeus prepares to address the other gods.

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33

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Minos

Socrates asks a companion what law is, distinguishing written enactments and public decisions from the discovery of what is genuinely right. Their inquiry turns to the Cretan king Minos, whose reputation becomes a test of inherited political judgments.

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34

Work4th century BCE; chronology debated

Laws

An Athenian visitor, a Spartan and a Cretan discuss the founding of a new city while walking toward a sanctuary. Twelve books address education, property, magistracies, crime, religion and the institutions needed to sustain a lawful common life.

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35

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Epinomis

Returning to the speakers of the Laws, the dialogue asks what education would truly make human beings wise. Ordinary useful crafts are judged insufficient, and numerical understanding together with the orderly motions of the heavens becomes central to religious philosophy.

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36

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Letters I–XIII

Thirteen transmitted letters discuss Sicilian politics, philosophical education, personal recommendations and relations with rulers. The long Seventh Letter offers a retrospective account of involvement with Dionysius and Dion and warns against treating written formulas as philosophical understanding.

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37

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Definitions

This transmitted collection gives compact definitions of philosophical and ordinary terms, including justice, knowledge, courage, law and divinity. Its entries preserve classificatory habits associated with the Academy, without presenting a single developed argument or a consistently unified system.

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38

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Appendix: seven spurious dialogues

This collection names every included short work: On Justice, On Virtue, Demodocus, Sisyphus, Eryxias, Axiochus and Halcyon. They explore law, education, deliberation, wealth, death and natural transformation through differing imitations of Socratic conversation.

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39

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Attributed epigrams and poetic testimonia

Short poems transmitted under Plato’s name address love, mourning, displaced communities and reversals of fortune. Diogenes Laertius quotes eleven at III.29–33; the Greek Anthology preserves overlapping attributions that require individual textual and historical assessment.

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40

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On Justice

This brief anonymous dialogue asks whether just and unjust action can be distinguished by a reliable capacity. Its chain of comparisons with sight, hearing and skilled activities tries to move from familiar examples toward an account of moral knowledge.

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41

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On Virtue

The interlocutors ask whether virtue can be taught, acquired by practice or bestowed by nature. The apparent failure of outstanding statesmen to make their sons equally excellent turns a general educational question into a test of particular evidence.

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42

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Demodocus

Four short argumentative pieces examine public deliberation, fair hearing, confidence and the conditions of trustworthy advice. The opening address to Demodocus is followed by loosely connected discussions whose relationship has led editors to question the work’s unity.

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43

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Sisyphus

Socrates asks Sisyphus why he missed an earlier conversation and hears that civic deliberation prevented him. Their exchange examines what deliberation is, what its participants know and whether searching for an answer differs from choosing among known alternatives.

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44

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Eryxias

A conversation involving Socrates, Eryxias, Erasistratus and Critias examines wealth and its value. Money, property, skills and needs provide competing ways to identify riches, while examples ask whether possessing more actually makes a person better off.

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45

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Axiochus

Socrates is called to comfort Axiochus, who fears imminent death. The consolation combines arguments that death cannot harm the insensible, reflections on the burdens of life, and descriptions of the soul’s blessed existence after bodily separation.

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46

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Halcyon

Socrates and Chaerephon discuss the kingfisher’s song and the story that the bird was once a woman. The supposed transformation prompts an inquiry into how confidently short-lived human beings can judge the limits of nature and divine possibility.

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Sources & reference points

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Plato Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Plato’s Ethics and Politics in The Republic