This outstanding work provides the most penetrating analysis I have yet encountered of the precise goals and methods of that educational activity in which Socrates so fully and fruitfully engaged for the benefit of himself and others. The author proceeds through an interpretation, tightly and economically focused on this theme, of the shorter Platonic dialogues-many of which have never before received so serious and so illuminating an exegesis. . . . The scholarship is meticulous, the contribution-to the fields of Plato studies, educational theory, classical philosophy, and political philosophy-truly major.
Thomas Pangle, University of Toronto This is a valuable book.
The Heythrop Journal
Modestly suggesting that his commentaries are an 'introduction' to the dialogues, and that they are offered as a contribution to contemporary debates on liberal education, Bruell reveals himself a subtle exegete and makes a highly important contribution to classical scholarship. Attentive to every nuance and twist of a dialogue, he displays a discernment and irony developed only after years of painstaking reading and rereading of the dialogues. . . . The value of Bruell's portrait of Socrates extends beyond classical Athens and sheds light on contemporary platitudes that range from cultural relativism, legal positivism, and psychological reductionism to how to respond to the seductive appeal of sham teachers and the prolixity of those academics who lack the self-conscious, moderating reluctance to teach and open themselves to learning something from their students.
Peter C. Emberley, Carleton University
American Political Science Review
Brilliant. Bruell's book gives an education in the proper method of following Socrates's highly eristic, mercurial arguments.
Charles H. Fairbanks
Review of Metaphysics
This is a book to be studied, not merely read. . . . Few works can claim to give Socratic philosophy the kind of living force that Bruell achieves.
Polis
Serious students of Socratic education should find this book an invaluable supplement to the Platonic dialogues. On the Socratic Education is studded with startling insights into the dialogues, often advancing interpretations strikingly at odds with dominant views or, more often, raising questions and considerations not usually raised. It should remain a beacon of light and a stimulus to further investigation within the field of Platonic scholarship for many decades.
Nathan Tarcov, University of Chicago