“This work is absolutely essential for historians of philosophy and classicists, of interest to historians of mathematics, and obliquely to theologians because of its treatment of Plato’s idea of the Good and the Demiurge. Argued with meticulous cogency, it takes into account ancient commentaries and summaries as well as modern secondary literature. All pertinent Greek is both quoted and accurately translated. Freely admitting the hypothetical nature of his account at certain points, Sayre harmonizes the middle and later dialogues and Plato’s “so-called unwritten teaching” with Aristotle’s description of Plato’s ontology and discusses Plato’s views in the middle and later dialogues of knowledge, of the relationship among the forms, and of participation in the forms by sensible objects. He also discusses dating the middle and later dialogues. Although it is written clearly, this work is unavoidably difficult reading for non-specialists.”
