Philosophers

What is the accepted date for the setting of Plato's Phaedrus and when was it written?

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This took a bit of homework and consulting to find out.

Many scholars seem to think that there may not be a determinate date for the setting of the Phaedrus as Plato was not committed to historical accuracy and ready to create a composite from different times to suit his dialectical purposes. This view is exemplified by Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff who, on page xiii of the introduction to their edition of the Phaedrus (Hackett 1995), assert that the people mentioned in the dialogue as present in Athens were never there at the same time: Lysias did not arrive in Athens until 412 BCE, Phaedrus was in long-term exile 415-403 BCE, and the dialogue strongly suggests that Sophocles and Euripides (who both died in 406 BCE) are still alive at the time it takes place.

The most authoritative work on the dramatic dates of Plato's dialogues is Debra Nails: The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and OtherSocratics (Hackett 2002). She disagrees with Nehamas/Woodruff and settles on 418-416 for the dramatic date of the Phaedrus. The character Phaedrus appears also in the Symposium, which is often thought to describe events that took place in 416 BCE.

An ancient tradition, now all but extinct, holds that the Phaedrus was Plato's first dialogue; and one scholar, Christopher Rowe, has argued that it is one of Plato'slast. But there is strong consensus that the Phaedrus was in fact composed, along with the Republic, in Plato's middle period. Most scholars make do with such ordinal dating; but Wilamowitz-Moellendorf gives 374 BCE as the date of composition, Nehamas and Woodruff give 375-365 BCE. This fits pretty well with the consensus view (middle period), as Plato lived from about 428 or 427 until 348 or 347 BCE.

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