Modern 'Platonic' dialogues?

February 12, 2013 2:50 PM

Which works published anytime in the last century are Platonic-style dialogues on philosophical themes?
posted by shivohum to Religion & Philosophy (27 answers total)

"Godel, Escher, Bach" uses the dialogue form as a literary device. Raymond Smullyan has written some stuff like dialogues between various kinds of believers and non-believers, in, I think, "The Tao Is Silent".

The latest examples of big name, battleship-class philosophers writing dialogues that I can think of are from the 18th century, though - Berkeley, Hume.
posted by thelonius at 2:56 PM on February 12, 2013 [2 favorites]

One of the things (the many things!) I love about Neal Stephenson's Anathem is the long long (LONG) passages of Socratic dialogue (Platonic I guess, cuz he wrote it down.)
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:06 PM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

Arguably, modern novels can work this way. Some of Tom Wolfe's novels are arguably extended essays of social and cultural criticism in narrative form. Ayn Rand doesn't even bother to conceal this fact about her works.

Who's to say whether modern novels are poor philosophical dialogs or ancient dialogs are clumsy novels?
posted by valkyryn at 3:08 PM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

The film Waking Life is very much like an extended dialogue (or maybe more like a Symposium, except instead of wine everyone's shrooming their butt off).

Also there are a lot of theatrical plays, especially Tom Stoppard's (Arcadia for instance) that are more like a greek dialogue than a narrative.

Tom Wolfe is great, but it's not a dialogue. There is way more action than rhetoric.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:10 PM on February 12, 2013

Picasso at the Lapin Agile is all discussion too.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:12 PM on February 12, 2013

Anthropologist/cyberneticist wrote a series of "Metalogues" that are basically Socratic conversations between a "father" and a "daughter."
posted by neroli at 3:13 PM on February 12, 2013

neroli - did you mean Gregory Bateson?
posted by thelonius at 3:15 PM on February 12, 2013

Proofs and Refutations by Imre Lakatos is pretty much exactly what you're looking for, a Platonic Dialogue on the philosophy of mathematics. It's absolutely a must read for anyone who is interested in the nature of mathematical proof. I liked the book so much I named my MeFi account after it, it's just fantastic.
posted by Proofs and Refutations at 3:26 PM on February 12, 2013 [6 favorites]

Ah yes, Gregory Bateson....was typing as I ran out of the house. Thanks.
posted by neroli at 3:26 PM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

Might Sophie's World count? It's more about philosophy itself rather than being about philosophical topics.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:56 PM on February 12, 2013

The Little Schemer, and sequels, are dialogues about the theory of computation.
posted by Bourbonesque at 4:11 PM on February 12, 2013

Came in to say Gregory Bateson. His 'metalogues' are in Steps to an Ecology of Mind, and video artist Gary Hill made this video based on "Why Do Things Get in a Muddle?"

Another one that comes to mind is Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 4:23 PM on February 12, 2013

Can Animals and Machines Be Persons? (Leiber)
posted by Kwine at 4:55 PM on February 12, 2013

There's an essay by Eliot, "A Dialogue on Dramatic Poetry," that resembles the thing you're looking for.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 5:13 PM on February 12, 2013

Paul Feyerabend's Three Dialogues on Knowledge are written in the form of Socratic dialogues.
posted by fryman at 5:35 PM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think Ishmael fits the bill.
posted by spbmp at 5:41 PM on February 12, 2013

David and Stephanie Lewis' paper "Holes" is also written as a philosophical dialogue.
posted by fryman at 5:44 PM on February 12, 2013 [3 favorites]

The Nature of Economies by Jane Jacobs is structured as a dialogue.
posted by barnoley at 6:30 PM on February 12, 2013

Systems of Survival, also by Jane Jacobs, is structured as a conversation.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:51 PM on February 12, 2013

John C. Wright's Golden Age sci-fi series.
posted by audi alteram partem at 7:24 PM on February 12, 2013

The Philosophy Gym
posted by atlantica at 7:26 PM on February 12, 2013

I just mentioned this in another thread, but how about A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality (pdf) by John Perry?
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 9:17 PM on February 12, 2013

This is late 19th Century (first published 1891), but it's modern and great.

The Decay of Lying, Oscar Wilde.
posted by Hugobaron at 2:56 AM on February 13, 2013

David Mamet's On Directing.
posted by Sticherbeast at 3:12 AM on February 13, 2013

The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life was published in 2000, so it is slightly over your timeframe..
posted by ironicon at 3:55 AM on February 13, 2013

Though Gourmet Rhapsody and The Elegance of the Hedgehog aren't precisely dialogues, in that the characters aren't speaking to each other, they do use chapters that alternate between multiple points of view to think through philosophical issues within embedded narratives. Muriel Barbery, the author, is a professor of philosophy, too. I didn't think of them as philosophical dialogues before I taught Gourmet Rhapsody immediately after teaching the Symposium, but now the parallel seems clear.
posted by dizziest at 6:23 AM on February 13, 2013

Iris Murdoch wrote Acastos: Two Platonic Dialogues in 1986.
posted by zadcat at 6:24 AM on February 13, 2013 [1 favorite]