Plato on the Parmenides

In the Parmenides, Plato breaks the rules of Socratic dialogue by introducing, in the second part, a new guide for philosophical research: the elderly and venerable protagonist. This literary choice, which corresponds to a modification of the code of the dialogue going in the direction of a systematic exposition, is signalled to the reader in the first part of the work, where Plato disseminates allusions to his formal experimentation. It is moreover remembered in the Theaetetus and the Sophist for its experimental value and as the main alternative model for a new form of non-Socratic dialogue.