InPlato's Socrates on Socrates: Socratic Self-Disclosure and the Public Practice of Philosophy, Anne-Marie Schultz analyzes the philosophical and political implications of Platos presentation of Socrates self-disclosive speech in four dialogues:Theaetetus,Symposium,Apology, andPhaedo. Schultz argues that these moments of Socratic self-disclosure show that Platos presentation of Socrates the narrator is much more pervasive than the secondary literature typically acknowledges. Despite the pervasive appearance of a Socrates who describes his own experience throughout the dialogues, Socratic autobiographical self-disclosure has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. Platos use of narrative, particularly his trope of Socrates the narrator, is often subsumed into discussions of the dramatic nature of the dialogues more generally rather than studied in its own right. Schultz shows how these carefully crafted narrative remarks add to the richness and profundity of the Platonic texts on multiple levels. To illustrate how these embedded Socratic narratives contribute to the portrait of Socrates as a public philosopher in Platos dialogues, the author also examines Socratic self-disclosive practices in the works of bell hooks, Kathy Khang, and Ta-Neishi Coates, and even practices the art of Socratic self-disclosure herself.

Anne-Marie Schultz is professor of philosophy at Baylor University.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One: Recovering Socrates the Narrator in theTheaetetus

Chapter Two: Socratic Self-Disclosure in theSymposium

Chapter Three: Three Imitations of Socratic Narration

Chapter Four: Socratic Self-Disclosure in theApology

Chapter Five: Socratic Self-Disclosure in thePhaedo

Chapter Six: Listening to Socratic Voices

Postscript: Becoming a Public Philosopher

Bibliography

About the Author