Friday Reflection: Reading Letters
Ariel Helfer on Plato, Politics, and the Philosophical Life
Published on December 5, 2025
Throughlines
The conversation with Ariel Helfer begins with one of the oldest puzzles in classical philosophy: did Plato really write the thirteen letters attributed to him? For centuries, scholars have debated their authenticity, with most dismissing all but the Seventh Letter as later forgeries. Helfer, however, makes a striking case that the letters are neither spurious nor conventional—they are an epistolary philosophical novel, a unified work in which Plato the dramatist turns philosophy itself into narrative art.
Al and Helfer trace how the authenticity debate took shape in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when scholars such as Richard Bentley exposed forgeries of ancient correspondence and raised the bar for textual criticism. But where earlier critics saw anachronisms and inconsistencies, Helfer sees pattern and design. “The proof,” he tells Al, “is in the reading.” The letters, he argues, share coherence of subject and progression of theme. Taken together, they reveal Plato the teacher, counselor, and political actor navigating the dangerous court of Dionysius of Syracuse.
As they move through the conversation, Al presses Helfer on why these letters matter beyond their philological intrigue. The answer unfolds through history and philosophy alike. Plato, we learn, did not only theorize about philosopher-kings; he tried to make one. The letters, set amid the intrigues of Greek Sicily, tell the story of Plato’s ill-fated attempt to turn his student Dion and the young tyrant Dionysius II into rulers guided by reason. What follows is a human drama of exile, betrayal, and the limits of philosophy in politics.
The two explore how the letters complicate the image of Plato as detached contemplative. Instead, they show a philosopher entangled in the real world—writing from the perspective of failure, irony, and rueful self-knowledge. Helfer describes how translating these letters convinced him that they form a deliberate sequence, symmetrical and thematically unified. The seventh letter, the longest and most famous, stands at the center, flanked by shorter ones that echo its concerns.
From this structure, the conversation widens into timeless questions. How far can philosophy shape politics before being corrupted by it? What does it mean for a thinker to live in, rather than above, the political world? Helfer and Al examine passages from the Sixth Letter, where Plato urges three correspondents to “read together in twos and threes” and treat his letter “as a compact and sovereign law.” The command, Helfer notes, blurs the line between sacred text and philosophical dialogue, between lawgiving and play. Plato insists that such reading must be done “with seriousness that is not unmusical”—a phrase Al delights in unpacking, seeing in it the very essence of Plato’s playfulness.
Their discussion turns finally to the letters’ larger theme: the search for a home for philosophy within the turbulent city. Plato’s dialogues often end in aporia—unresolved questions—but his letters dramatize that tension as lived experience. As Helfer puts it, they are about “finding safety for philosophy in a world that does not easily make room for it.”
Ten Reflection Questions
What does Ariel Helfer mean by calling Plato’s Letters an “epistolary philosophical novel”?
How does the historical debate over authenticity shape our modern reading of these letters?
What parallels exist between Plato’s experiences in Syracuse and his philosophical reflections in the dialogues?
How does the Seventh Letter serve as the centerpiece of the collection?
Why does Plato’s involvement with Dion and Dionysius II matter for understanding the tension between theory and practice?
What does Plato’s phrase “seriousness that is not unmusical” suggest about his approach to philosophy and writing?
How do the letters portray friendship, mentorship, and the danger of politics?
Why might Plato have chosen letters, rather than dialogues, to express certain philosophical insights?
What does the conversation reveal about the relationship between historical fact and philosophical truth?
How might the rediscovery of ancient texts—such as those in the Herculaneum scrolls—transform our understanding of Plato and his world?
For Further Investigation
Plato, Plato’s Letters: The Political Challenges of the Philosophic Life, ed. and trans. Ariel Helfer (Cornell University Press, 2023)
Ariel Helfer, Socrates and Alcibiades: Plato’s Drama of Political Ambition and Philosophy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020)
Plato, Alcibiades I, in Plato: Complete Works, ed. John M. Cooper (Hackett, 1997)
Melissa Lane, Plato’s Progeny: How Plato and Socrates Still Captivate the Modern Mind (Bloomsbury, 2001)
Christopher Rowe, Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing (Cambridge, 2007)
Related Episodes
“What’s the Good of Ambition?”—Ariel Helfer discusses the Athenian philosopher Socrates, and his student the Athenian politician Alcibiades