Perhaps perversely, in view of the size of the present volume, I begin it by regretting some absences. The body of this book consists of readings of a select number of Plato's dialogues. Even at its present length, issues of enormous importance for understanding these works – especially the longer ones – have inevitably been neglected and other dialogues that would richly repay study from the present perspective have received little or no attention. I particularly regret the lack of a chapter on Symposium, and a concluding chapter, originally planned, on Timaeus-Critias.

My readers will probably feel, however, that the book is quite long enough as it is. In order to prevent it from bulking still larger I have, with regret, drastically reduced the number of secondary references that were present in earlier versions. For this reason the Bibliography contains many items that are no longer referred to in the text or notes. I hope this will make it useful to anyone who wishes to pursue these topics in more detail.

I write at a time when the canons for orthography and linguistic convention of various kinds are in flux. I therefore take this opportunity to clarify my usage in two such areas. First, when speaking of ancient authors and their views, I normally use the traditional, supposedly “unmarked,” pronoun “he,” reflecting the norms employed by these writers themselves. To supply them with gender-neutral pronouns would both be culturally misleading and provide credit where it is not due.