Ascent to the Beautiful is the culmination of a five-volume project, Plato the Teacher. Altman develops his “Curricular Hypothesis,” which presents a teaching order of the dialogues as they were used at the Academy. While the historical dimensions of this project are important, Altman emphasizes that Plato still teaches us. Since readers of this review will have varying degrees of familiarity with Altman's project, I summarize seven interpretive principles that guide Altman's thinking. First, he upholds “the absolute primacy of pedagogical concerns” (xxii). Second, he employs “the principle of the snug fit” (xxiii). Third, Altman emphasizes dramatic detail and connections between dialogues. Fourth, Plato uses proleptic composition. Fifth, Altman upholds “the absolute centrality of Republic, and more specifically the Allegory of the Cave” (xxiv). Sixth, simply put, Plato is a Platonist. Altman writes, “the Ideas, Recollection, and Immortality all remain central to his concerns” (xxv). Finally, Plato employs basanistic pedagogy. This testing process employs deliberate deception, use of fallacy, interrelationship of themes, repetition of Greek words and phrases that occur throughout related dialogues. Basanistic pedagogy pervades all five volumes. The copious footnotes that link the books to each other offer a helpful means for exploring the numerous ways in which we are tested by Plato. His pervasive use of Greek may hinder Greekless readers. However, in Altman's view, the second most important quality a reader of Plato should have, after a sense of humor, is the ability to read all of the dialogues in Greek (xi–xii).

Though Ascent to the Beautiful appears last in print, it deals with the dialogues that Altman places first in reading order: Protagoras, Alcibiades Major, Alcibiades Minor, Lovers, Hippias Major, Hippias Minor, Ion, Menexenus, and Symposium. Altman's project hinges on the authenticity of Alcibiades Major. In the introduction, he details Schleiermacher's categorization of it as inauthentic. Altman places Schleiermacher's work in the larger context of German intellectual thought. This and other sustained engagements with Platonic secondary literature provide a great service to scholars. This book is heavily footnoted, which enables one to read the literature alongside Altman's text.

In chapter 1, Altman argues that Protagoras is the intended introductory dialogue. He believes it was performed annually at the Academy. Altman regards Protagoras as immediately accessible. However, it contains difficult content that a beginner could not grasp. We must continuously return to Protagoras with more philosophically informed eyes. Altman posits an important “Corollary of the Curricular Hypothesis: Plato considered the interpretation of his own works as the best available education in virtue and philosophy” (103). This view of Protagoras should cause teachers to rethink their Introductory and Ancient Philosophy syllabi.

Chapter 2 explores the Alcibiades dyad and Lovers. Altman considers Alcibiades Major in light of its many thematic connections with the Protagoras, particularly the eu prattein fallacy. He also links Alcibiades Major with Symposium and Republic. Altman challenges the reader: “If it seems completely ridiculous to imagine that the de-Platonizing of Plato could in any way be connected to the death-camps and the crisis of our own republic, then set me down as a book-crazed fool” (145). Perhaps Plato's dialogues, properly understood, can help us avoid our own political tragedies. Next, Altman explores Alcibiades Minor and Lovers. He mentions “the theological connection between the interplay of the sacred and profane in Alcibiades Minor and the disputed lines in Alcibiades Major (133c8–17)” (182). He reinforces links between these dialogues, Protagoras, and Symposium, reminding us that “there is virtually no adolescent on earth who would not ask (unless scared into silence by a teacher's likely scorn) whether or not Socrates is having sex with Alcibiades” (188). Altman notes that “Lovers is the only dialogue between Protagoras and Symposium that Socrates narrates” (204). He calls it “the delightful dialogue that will put us on the path to Platonism” (205).

Chapter 3 discusses views on the Juddendialog in German scholarship. Scholars often dismissed dialogues classified in this category as “written by one of Plato's youthful disciples in imitation of the master” (207). Altman argues that these dialogues were, in fact, written and rewritten by a mature Plato for the youth. Altman focuses on Hippias Major, which he refers to as “so great a masterpiece of the fine art of teaching” (236). He describes the symmetrical structure of the Hippias Major, the appearance of numerous triads, and the Double Definition. He emphasizes its connection to Protagoras and Symposium, the bookends of the introductory dialogues. Altman writes, “Implicit in the notion of Hippias Major as the pons asinorum is that not all of Plato's students will cross the bridge, and to imagine that Plato the Teacher would have wished to kick those who didn't do so out of the Academy is to misunderstand Platonic pedagogy radically” (258). This pedagogical approach involves Socratic and Platonic deception. Plato is pedagogically protective: “all these deceptions are performed for the sake of increasing the student's ability to recognize deception” (270). We would do well to teach our students to recognize deception, duplicities, half-truths, and deliberate falsehoods aimed at undermining truth in our political landscape. Altman also explores the links between Hippias Major and Symposium: “it is the pedagogical fiction of ‘Socrates Schooled,’ for in both dialogues Socrates pretends that he is being taught while in reality this particular deception is Plato's chosen means for teaching us” (274).

Chapter 4 considers Hippias Minor, Ion, and Menexenus. This chapter illustrates how thoroughly Plato depends upon a knowledge of Homer, Xenophon, Herodotus, and Thucydides. Altman describes how Platonic characters foster self-understanding: “when we travel the world giving invited lectures as Professors of Ancient Philosophy while dressed in accordance with our particular form of self-fashioning, are we really any better or even different from Ion?” (329). Altman argues that Plato taught rhetoric at the Academy and considers Demosthenes Plato's ideal student (348). Altman argues that Plato uses historical inaccuracies and discrepancies in Menexenus to test the reader's understanding of the narrative of the rise and fall of Athens.

Chapter 5 addresses Symposium. He emphasizes its performative and rhetorical dimensions. He explores the interrelation between Phaedrus's speech in light of Diotima's allusions to it (Alcestis, Orpheus/Codrus, and Achilles). He returns to the ongoing relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades. He recounts the tragic history surrounding Symposium: “the gigantic tragi-comic fact of Alcibiades himself, and of his role in the catastrophic Sicilian Expedition” (401). Altman addresses problems associated with the substitution of the beautiful with the Good. He refutes eudaimonist readings of Socrates and Vlastos's influential view about no love of the individual in Plato.

In the epilogue, Altman explains his vision of the Academy: “unlike previous imaginings, mine are based on the hypothesis that reading Plato's dialogues, Republic included, constituted the Academy's curriculum. While there is no evidence that it did, there is likewise no proof that it didn't” (481). The dialogues “are entertaining, and embody a playful pedagogy designed to capture the attention of a youthful audience; in a word, they make learning fun” (485). Plato also prepared his students for the perils of political life: “thanks to his dialogues, he continues to prepare us for them still” (491). The appearance of The Ascent to the Beautiful should orient significant scholarly attention to Altman's earlier books and help to uncover their Platonic light.