Knowledge and Politics in Plato's Theaetetus

Is this some new kind of refutation, laughing at your opponent? An indirect dialogue would have featured the stage direction, At this point, Polus laughed sarcastically. Plato represents Socrates in his last days talking to a brilliant young mathematician, who is also not long for this world, about the nature of knowledge as a way of moving his readers to recognize that even the most abstract discussion has political significance. [...] Stern.