Plato's First Interpreters

Book excerpt: Harold Tarrant here explores ancient attempts to interpret Plato's writings, by philosophers who spoke a Greek close to Plato's own, and provides a fresh, almost primitive reading of Plato himself. His book also serves as a synthesis of recent work on ancient interpreters of Plato.Tarrant's primary emphasis is on the Middle Platonists, but he also discusses the Old and New Academies, the Athenian and Alexandrian Neoplatonists, and selected nonphilosophical writers. In Part I, he addresses some of the principal issues of interpretation--Are the dialogues drama or philosophy? Is Plato offering doctrine? What parts of the corpus are most important?--and considers them alongside the views of ancient readers. In Part II, he offers a historical overview of significant ancient developments in interpretation over the centuries. In Part III, he considers ancient attitudes toward particular groups of dialogues, and the Gorgias and the Theaetetus individually