The Ideas of Socrates
The Ideas of Socrates offers a unique interpretation of the ideas (for, eide) in Plato’s writings. In this concise and accessible study, Matthew S. Linck makes four major claims. Firstly, the ideas as Socrates discusses them in the Phaedo, Parmenides, and Symposium are shown to be integral to the person of Socrates as presented in Plato’s dialogues. Secondly, Linck argues that if we take Plato’s dialogues as an integrated set of writings, then we must acknowledge that the mature Socrates is perfectly aware of the difficulties entailed in the positing of ideas. Thirdly, the book shows that Socrates’ recourse to the ideas is not simply an epistemological issue but one of self-transformation. And finally Linck examines how Socrates relates to the ideas in two ways, one practical, the other speculative.
