Table of Contents

I. The Dramatic Context.- 1. Dramatic situation: the trial of Socrates.- 2. Dramatis personae: antipathy, eagerness, silence.- 3. The stranger from Elea.- 4. The agreement to begin.- II. The Initial Diairesis (258b–267c).- 1. Formal structure of the method; the apparent accord (258b–261e).- 2. Young Socrates’ error; the value of bifurcatory diairesis (261e–264b).- 3. The closing bifurcations; jokes and problems (264b–267c).- III. The Digressions on Substance and Method (267c–287b).- A. The first digression: the myth of the divine shepherd (267c–277a).- B. The second digression: paradigm and the mean (277a–287b).- IV. The Final Diairesis (287b–311c).- a. The change in the form of diairesis (287b ff.).- b. The first phase: the indirectly responsible arts, makers of instruments (287b–289c).- c. The second phase, part one: the directly responsible arts, subaltern servants (289c–290e).- d. The digression: philosophy and ordinary opinion; statesmanship and actual political order (291a–303d).- e. Resumption of the diairesis (second phase, part two): the true aides (303d–305e).- f. The third phase: the statesman as weaver; the virtues and the mean (305e–311c).- Notes.- Index of Historical Persons.- Index of References to Platonic Passages.