Descent of Socrates: Self-Knowledge and Cryptic Nature in the Platonic Dialogues

Since the appearance of Plato's Dialogues, philosophers have been
preoccupied with the identity of Socrates and have maintained that successful
interpretation of the work hinges upon a clear understanding of what thoughts and
ideas can be attributed to him. In Descent of Socrates, Peter Warnek offers a new
interpretation of Plato by considering the appearance of Socrates within Plato's
work as a philosophical question. Warnek reads the Dialogues as an inquiry into the
nature of Socrates and in doing so opens up the relationship between humankind and
the natural world. Here, Socrates appears as a demonic and tragic figure whose
obsession with the task of self-knowledge transforms the history of philosophy. In
this uncompromising work, Warnek reveals the importance of the concept of nature in
the Platonic Dialogues in light of Socratic practice and the Ancient ideas that
inspire contemporary philosophy.