Plato's Missing Dialogue: The Philosopher

FAIN: FT-52238-04

Mary-Louise Glanville Gill
Brown University (Providence, RI 02912-9100)

Plato’s Philosopher was promised as the third member of a trilogy, Sophist-Statesman-Philosopher, but was almost certainly never written. Indeed, the Philosopher seems to be the missing member of a tetralogy, which starts with the Theaetetus, a dialogue that connects itself dramatically with the Sophist. I contend that Plato left the Philosopher unwritten on purpose to challenge us to answer its central question: What is it to be a philosopher? The dialogues that lead up to the Philosopher, on which my project will focus, present a complex philosophical exercise. If we complete the exercise successfully, we will have the elements and tools to answer the question, but it is our task to construct an adequate account.