This book gives an account of Gadamer's Socratic (i.e. non-dualist and dialogical) interpretation of Plato: a privileged instance where the relationship between theory and practice in interpretative scholarship raises fundamental questions concerning herneneutical presuppositions commonly operating in Platonic scholarship.

Renaud's study situates Gadamer's interpretation in the larger context of the German tradition in philosophy and clasical philology and elucidates the main theses of the Gadamerian reading.

The book concludes with an examination of the inner tensions between theory and practice in Gadamer and of some exegetical difficulties involved in his reading.

This study helps to clarify some vital issues in both Platonic scholarship and contemporary hermeneutics.