Il dialogo pseudo-platonico Amanti: la polemica contro Isocrate e l’Accademia sotto il magistero di Platone

In this paper, the author analyses the dialogue Lovers or Rivals. Some scholars argue in favour of Plato’s authorship, while others agree on its inauthenticity. The thesis of its inauthenticity will be defended without reappraising and developing the most prevalent hypothesis, namely that the dialogue was composed in the third century BCE as a pamphlet against the Peripatetic school. In fact, the author advances the hypothesis that the Lovers were written by a disciple of Plato in the fourth century BCE, and that the dialogue clearly attacks Isocrates and, in particular, his conception of philosophy described for example in his Antidosis. The author will argue that the dialogue possesses a protreptic intent and perhaps addresses some of those issues that were most considered by Plato himself: finding a proper definition of philosophy and encouraging philosophers to engage in politics.