Sophia at the Beach

A Refutation of Moral Relativism: Interviews with an Absolutist, by Peter Kreeft (Ignatius, 177 pp., $12.95)

IN Plato’s Athens, the practice of writing was just becoming widespread (his teacher Socrates never wrote anything), so philosophy, that favorite Athenian pastime, was usually done through conversations rather than in treatises. Plato held the common belief that philosophy lost something when written down, but realized that it was lost for good unless committed to paper. His solution was to compose philosophical dialogues, hoping that by dramatically presenting a many-sided argument he could seduce the reader into wrestling with the issues just as if he himself were engaged in the discussion.

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Daniel P. Moloney

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A Refutation of Moral Relativism: Interviews with an Absolutist, by Peter Kreeft (Ignatius, 177 pp., $12.95)

IN Plato’s Athens, the practice of writing was just becoming widespread (his teacher Socrates never wrote anything), so philosophy, that favorite Athenian pastime, was usually done through conversations rather than in treatises. Plato held the common belief that philosophy lost something when written down, but realized that it was lost for good unless committed to paper. His solution was to compose philosophical dialogues, hoping that by dramatically presenting a many-sided argument he could seduce the reader into wrestling with the issues just as if he himself were engaged in the discussion.