Plato's Theaetetus /

The Theaetetus is a Socratic examination of a young mathematician's knowledge of knowledge. His several definitions of knowledge are scrutinized in turn. Bostock, author of Logic and Arithmetic (1974) and Plato's Phaedo (CH, Nov '86), discusses the dating of the dialogue in relation to Timaeus, Parmenides, and Sophist, and presents a critical analysis of its argument, with constant references to the competing readings of modern and contemporary scholars. He ends with a valuable if too compressed reconsideration of the coherence of the overall argument and the problem it raises about knowledge of facts and knowledge of objects; however, he tends to presume that the propositions and inferences of Socrates are endorsed by Socrates and Plato themselves. Nevertheless, this acute and lucid study is a very useful commentary on the dialogue and a worthy addition to F. Cornford's Plato's Theory of Knowledge (1935), I. M. Crombie's two-volume Examination of Plato's Doctrines (1962-63), J. McDowell's Theaetetus (1973), and, K. Sayre's Plato's Late Ontology (CH, Jan '84). For broader philosophical dimensions students should also be steered to Lewis Campbell's The Theaetetus of Plato (2nd ed., 1883), Jacob Klein's Plato's Trilogy (CH, Jun '78), and Seth Benardete's The Being of the Beautiful (1984). Upper-division undergraduate and graduate collections. -M. Andic, University of Massachusetts at Boston