Dialogue in the Academy

Abstract

AbstractThe chapter gathers and carefully assesses evidence on the use of the dialogue by Plato’s successors in the Academy. Plato established the dialogue as the philosophical genre, providing his successors with an approved model of philosophy. The first section discusses evidence for the employment of the dialogue format by Plato’s students and early successors, including Heraclides of Pontus, Speusippus, Eudoxus of Cnidus, and Xenocrates, and inspects testimonies and fragments of Crantor of Soli. The subsequent section discusses changes in the dialogue format in the New Academy of Arcesilaus and his successors, who introduced new forms of oral and written discourse, suitable for skeptical reasoning—a thesis proposed by a student, followed by a refutation by a philosopher-teacher, either with or without the former’s interventions.