Abstract

In this article, the author addresses the issue of the style of Plato's dialogues in its relationship with his philosophical thinking by adopting a perspective inspired by contemporary literary theories of reception: that of the effect produced by the Platonic writing on the reader. The author takes its most obvious characteristics (choice of the dialogical form, staging of characters, use of stories) and describes them by showing that every time they cause above all emotional reactions (identification, sympathy, rejection, irritation, etc.) «intellectual» effects (effects on the "doxa" of the reader) occur. The expected ultimate effect is to cause in the reader the peculiar «affect» which is philosophy (love of knowledge).