Nalin Ranasinghe has a strong affection for the Socrates he finds in four of Plato's most influential dialogues. This engagingly humane book traces Plato's struggle to simultaneously understand and convey the erotic presence of Socrates. Most commentators suppose that Plato assumes an ironic distance from Socrates. Ranasinghe claims, rather, that the dialogues reflect Plato's awe and frustration before the enigmatic figure whose conduct fascinated and bewildered Classical Athens.

In original readings of the Republic, the Protagoras, the Phaedo, and the Symposium, Ranasinghe uncovers the...