Epistles (Plato) - Authenticity

Authenticity

The two letters that are most commonly claimed to have actually been written by Plato are the Seventh and the Eighth, on the supposition that these were open letters and therefore less likely to be the result of invention or forgery. This is not so much because of a presumption in favor of an open letter's authenticity as because of a presumption against that of a private letter: the preservation of the former is unsurprising, while the preservation, dissemination, and eventual publication of the latter requires some sort of explanation according to some. Nevertheless, even the Seventh Letter has recently been argued to be spurious by prominent scholars, such as Malcolm Schofield, Myles Burnyeat, and Julia Annas. George Boas argues that all of the Epistles, including the Seventh, are spurious, a conclusion accepted also, and more recently, by Terence Irwin. On the other hand Grote, Raeder, Novotny, Harward, and Bluck reject only the First; and Bentley accepted all of them.

The other letters enjoy varying levels of acceptance among scholars. The Sixth, Third, and Eleventh have the greatest support of the remaining letters, followed by the Fourth, Tenth, Thirteenth, and Second Letter; fewer scholars consider the Fifth, Ninth, and Twelfth to be genuine, while almost none dispute that the First is spurious.