PHILOSOPHY AND THE HUMAN CONDITION we also know a lot more about lete works) do ut the Pre-Socratics. Plato's life than Glaucon and We know that he had two brotli- Adeimantus who are protagonists in the ers characters who act as the internal audience of the very Socrates' account of the ave. We also know that Plato nade a Syracuse in Sicily(at a Greek c number visits that tim despot where on the i Dionysius II and where he became political n an coup. The details of Plato's flirtation with abortive sicilian despotism, which have come down to us party in the Letter, have undoubtedly liad an effect on the way cot Seventh his more theoretical account of political matters people have read the we will see how this impacts on our own re of the Cave. But the Inost important thing we know about Plato is that he met and was profoundly influenccd by a figure called Socrates who was condemned to death by the Athenian Citizens in 399 BCE after political upheavals of the Pelopornesian War between Athens and sparta. Socrates' influence on Plato's pbilosophical career was so pro found that he all but eklipses Plato's own presence in his work. with the exception of the late work The Lurws, Socrates appears as a character in all Plato's dialogues In fact, rathcr than speak In his own voice, Plato consistently chooses Socrates to take on the role the philosopher in his dialogues. BuL while we may be able to do a better job of reconstructing some of thc contours y of his ancient d episodes of Plauo's life than we can for man an philosophical counterparts, there is a very good reason ior not relying on biographical information irl our interpretation of his works. Despite the fact that the word"Platonic' is repeatedly attached to a whole series of concepts from Platonic love' w uhe theory of forms it is, in fact, very difficult to aturibute securc authorship to the ideas expressed in his dialogues. This is not hirmself because we cannot be surc that Plato wrote these words By and large, with a few notable exceptions, one can be almost certain that the works we bave are by Platu d have been