Document Type
Thesis
Publication Date
1993
Disciplines
Classics
Advisor
Ray Larson
Abstract
This study examines the philosophical impact of literary techniques on Plato's dialogues. Incorporating phenomenological literary theory and illustrating Plato's dramatic form and imperfect philosophical argumentation in terms of similar usages in Dostoevsky's novels, it notes an intonation of reader interaction playing a significant role in the shaping of any philosophical message that is to be taken from the dialogues. It concludes that the dialogues, like Dostoevsky's novels, play with reader's expectations of the genres of "philosophy" and "literature" and the outcomes suitable to each to frustrate their readers' search for answers in the text and thus to engage them in a dialectic beyond it. Plato's dialogues and Dostoevsky's novels seek not clearly to state any philosophy, but to lead their readers to understand that, with the texts as guides, each of them must undertake the quest for truth on her own terms, seek his own philosophical moments.
Copyright Statement
Available by permission of the author. Reproduction or retransmission of this material in any form is prohibited without expressed written permission of the author.
Recommended Citation
Simmons, Bob, "My Dinner with Socrates: Literary Shaping of Philosophy in Plato and Dostoevsky" (1993). Honors Theses, 1963-2015. 455.
https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/honors_theses/455