Vol. 19 (2019): Plato Journal #19

A new volume of PLATO has seen the light, after the generous dedication by the two Assistant Editors, prof. Renato Matoso and prof. Luca Pitteloud, as well the precious help received by the members of the Board. I would very much like to thank referees and revisers, as well as the International Plato Society, which holds the Journal as one of its most important windows to the world. PLATO 19 arrives in the very week of the most awaited Paris XII Symposium Platonicum on Plato’s Parmenides. The volume starts with Smith’s paper on the dialectical methods in Theaetetus, Sophist, and Philebus, arguing for a unity of these methods as relevant to Platonic education. Blyth’s paper is willing to draw attention to later academic interpretation of Plato’s depiction of Socrates as a sceptic. In the third and last paper of the volume, Swanson focuses in a fairly long and elaborated essay on the final scene of the Euthydemus, arguing that its curious speech is a reverse eikos argument, directed at the speechwriters own eikos argument for the preeminence of their art. As a way of enhancing the debate within our Society and beyond, this volume decided to offer four excellent Books Reviews of works related to Plato and platonic scholarship. Candiotto offers an insightful review of Brisson most recent book, Platon:L’écrivain qui inventa la philosophie. dedicated to the study of Plato’s life as an introduction to his very philosophy. Schultz’s reviews of Destrée & Edmond III edited book on Plato and the Power of Images highligths the volume to anyone interested in the tension within Plato’s dialogues between describing the power of images as something harmful and wretched and using the power of images in various occasion within philosophical discussions. Notomi offers us a small piece on on why japanese is still the main language of Japanese scholarship. I strongly believe these same observations are similarly valid for others regions and languages and I sincerely hope that these few lines can start a debate on this very important issue. On this note, Notomi’s piece is followed by an ensligh review of the very first monograph ever written in Japanese on Plato’s Laws: The Rule of Law and the Philosophy of Dialogue: A Study in Plato’s Dialogue Laws, by Maruhashi. And while we are all heading to Paris, let’s take the opportunity to once again express our deepest gratitude to the Coimbra University Press for the precious publishing management of our journal.