The Seventh Letter of Plato is an epistle that tradition has ascribed to Plato. It is by far the longest of the epistles of Plato and gives an autobiographical account of his activities in Sicily as part of the intrigues between Dion and Dionysius of Syracuse for the tyranny of Syracuse. It also contains an extended philosophical interlude concerning the possibility of writing true philosophical works and the theory of forms. Assuming that the letter is authentic, it was written after Dion was assassinated by Calippus in 353 BC and before the latter was in turn overthrown a year later.
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👉 Seventh Letter (Plato) in the context of Laws (dialogue)
The Laws (Ancient Greek: Νόμοι) is Plato's last and longest dialogue. The conversation depicted in the work's twelve books begins with the question of who is given the credit for establishing a civilization's laws. Its musings on the ethics of government and law have frequently been compared to Plato's more widely read Republic. Some scholars see this as the work of Plato as an older man having failed in his effort to guide the rule of the tyrant Dionysius II of Syracuse. These events are alluded to in the Seventh Letter. The text is noteworthy as the only Platonic dialogue not to feature Socrates.
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Seventh Letter (Plato) in the context of Epistles (Plato)
The Epistles (Greek: Ἐπιστολαί; Latin: Epistolae) of Plato are a series of thirteen letters traditionally included in the Platonic corpus. With the exception of the Seventh Letter, they are generally considered to be forgeries; many scholars even reject the seventh. They were "generally accepted as genuine until modern times"; but by the close of the nineteenth century, many philologists believed that none of the letters were actually written by Plato.
The Epistles focus mostly on Plato's time in Syracuse and his influence on the Syracusan tyrants Dion and Dionysius II. They are generally biographical rather than philosophical, although several, notably the Seventh Letter, gesture at the doctrines of Plato's philosophy. Only two, the Second and Seventh, directly reference Plato's teacher Socrates, the major figure within his philosophical dialogues.