Platonic Dialogue and the Education of the Reader (Oxford Classical Monographs)

In this volume, Cotton examines Plato's ideas about education and learning. With a particular focus on the experiences a learner must go through in approaching philosophical understanding, the book argues that a reader's experience can be parallel in kind and value to that of the interlocutors we see conversing in the dialogues, in that it can constitute learning.

The study suggests that the corpus of Plato's works presents an arena for the reader to progress through the different stages of learning, providing them with the stimuli appropriate to their philosophical advancement at each point and encouraging them to take increasing responsibility for their own learning. Individual chapters focus on characterization, argumentation, structure and unity, plot, and myth as means by which the dialogues encourage their readers to engage in this productive and distinctive way.