Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0810115298, Hardcover)

The word most commonly used in Plato's dialogues to name philosophical inquiry and distinguish it from other types of activity is "dialectic". Dialectic and Dialogue seeks to define the method and the aims of Plato's dialectic in both the "inconclusive" dialogues and the dialogues that describe and practice a method of hypothesis. Gonzalez not only discusses Plato's few explicit descriptions of the dialectical method but also relates these descriptions to how the method is actually practiced, examining the contrast between dialectic and the opposite poles of ordinary discourse and sophistic discourse. In a radical departure from most other treatments of Plato, Gonzalez argues that the philosophical knowledge at which dialectic aims is nonpropositional, practical, and reflexive. The result is a radical reassessment of how Plato understood the nature of philosophy, one that is highly relevant to our contemporary struggles with the nature, purpose, and value of the philosophical enterprise.