In this original work, Schultz draws our attention to the dialogues in which Plato has Socrates serve as narrator, and she opens a new window onto his role and function in the dialogues. Schultz provides rich interpretations of the individual dialogues she examines, while at the same time revealing a powerful lens through which to view Plato’s project and his use of Socratic narrative to further particular philosophical ends. In the process, she offers new insights that enhance scholars’ understanding of Socratic intellectualism, the role of the emotions in philosophical endeavors, various models of virtue portrayed in the dialogues, and Socrates’ relation to Homeric and other foundational narratives in Greek culture. In the end, Schultz offers a provocative and persuasive account of how Socrates as narrator of certain Platonic dialogues entices and exhorts his auditors—and Plato’s readers—to good philosophical practices.

Jill Gordon, Colby College

In Plato’s Socrates as Narrator, Dr Schultz provides an invaluable entry into reflections on the interrelations between the practice of philosophy, on the one hand, and its transmission, on the other, arguing in effect that the retelling of Socrates’ philosophical encounters as we find them in the Platonic corpus belongs to the work of philosophy itself. While Plato scholarship in recent years has become increasingly attuned to the ways in which the literary and dramatic aspects of the dialogues operate as integral to their philosophical content, Prof. Schultz takes such scholarship a step further to demonstrate how the status of particular dialogues as narrated contributes as well to a fuller understanding of Plato’s conception of philosophy. From the vantage point achieved through mediation on particular dialogues in their status as narrated encounters Prof. Schultz brings to light the character of philosophy not simply as an intellectual pursuit composed of explicit propositions, but also as a basic human comportment involving the motives, affects, and social position of specific character types. Both accessibly written and rigorously developed, Prof. Schultz’ investigations into the narrative and literary aspects of the Platonic corpus speak to the interests of advanced Plato scholars and beginning students alike.

Ryan Drake, Fairfield University