Thomas A. Szlezák is the foremost living exponent of the so-called Tübingenschule of Platonic interpretation, arguing that Plato was an esotericist (with very specifically-defined parameters and ramifications for reading his philosophy). The esotericist/anti-exotericist argument has been a major controversy over the last few decades, with the anti-esotericist position holding the high ground, perhaps mainly because the holistic reading of Plato propounded by the Tübingenschule (taking into account for example the evidence for the lecture On the Good and other evidence for Plato’s extra-textual teaching-activity) is not amenable to analytic methods, which have tended to dominate Platonic scholarship.

Those interested in this debate, and what a supremely well-informed esotericist reader of Plato would say on the subject today, may want to check out some of the essays in this book (reviewed here); it is a collection of 35 of Szlezák’s articles gathered in one convenient volume. By no means all of the essays are concerned with the esotericism debate, but those interested in this debate will find certain essays here essential reading.