Form and Good in Plato's Eleatic Dialogues: The Parmenides, Theatetus, Sophist, and Statesman

In this analysis, Plato's four eleatic dialogues are treated as a continuous argument. In Kenneth Dorter's view, Plato reconsiders the theory of forms propounded in his earlier dialogues and through an examination of the theory's limitations, reaffirms and proves it essential. Contradicted are both those philosophers who argue that Plato espoused his theory of forms uncritically, and those who argue that Plato in some sense rejected the theory and moved toward the categorical analysis developed by Aristotle. Dorter's re-examination of Plato's insights implies an important new direction for modern philosophical inquiry.