The Inside Story of the Seventh Platonic Letter: A Sceptical Introduction
The Inside Story of the Seventh Platonic Letter: A Sceptical Introduction

Summary/Abstract: This is an introduction to questions about the authenticity and reliability of Letter Vii in the Platonic Corpus. Both the historical and the philosophical sections of the letter rely on a contrast between the ‘public’ facts and the ‘inside’ story. in the historical section ‘Plato’ mentions public facts that appear to indicate his views about Dionysius and Dion, and he discounts the appearance in the light of the inside story about his quiet diplomacy. In the philosophical section he mentions public facts that appear to indicate that Dionysius had learnt some of Plato’s philosophy, and he discounts the appearance in the light of the inside story about the inexpressible character of Platonic philosophy. in both cases the truth is available only to the insiders, and leaves no evidence for outsiders. The inside story of Plato’s dealings with Dionysius is probably false; probably someone is trying to make Plato seem more sympathetic to Dion than he really was. Similarly, we have some reason to believe that the inside story about Plato’s philosophy is false, and that someone is trying to make Plato seem less intelligible than he really was. Two conclusions are probable: (1) Both the historical and the philosophical inside story are false accounts of Plato’s position. (2) They are not by Plato. The first conclusion is independent of the second. In the light of these conclusions, we should not treat this letter as reliable evidence of Plato’s life and thought.

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