In the last few years interest in a multi-faceted approach to Socrates and
the Socratics has grown considerably. Not only have the So$ kratikoi logoi
been studied with more and more attention; the historical and literary contexts
to which the protagonists of these logoi belong have also been tackled
extensively. The need to consider Socrates within a broader context has become
urgent, this being the only way to understand both his uniqueness and the
various and often as yet unclear relations which link him to the Athenian
world and society of the second half of the fifth century B.C. A valuable survey
of recent scholarship, entitled Socratic Dialogues, appeared in 2009 in
the electronic journal Plato, with contributions by Mauro Bonazzi, Louis-
André Dorion, Noburu Notomi, Marcel van Ackeren, and Tomoko Hatano1.
This survey is mainly focused on Plato; the present one dwells on a wider
range of topics, and encompasses studies of the other Socratics as well.