Plato's Four Muses reconstructs Plato's authorial self-portrait through a fresh reading of the Phaedrus, with an Introduction and Conclusion that contextualize the construction more broadly. The Phaedrus, it is argued, is Plato's most self-referential dialogue, and Plato's reference to four Muses in Phaedrus 259c-d is read as a hint at the "ingredients" of philosophical discourse, which turns out to be a form of provocatively old-fashioned mousike.

Andrea Capra maintains that Socrates's conversion to "demotic"--as opposed to metaphorical--music in...