"Compare Aristotle next to Plato. Plato had an influence second only to Aristotle, and the range of his philosophical interests was vast. Moreover, his philosophical talents — the capacity to see where a problem lies, the ability to tell a promising line of inquiry from a dead end, the gift for producing relevant arguments - were surely greater than those of Descartes. Here is reason enough to read Plato. But Plato's philosophical views are mostly false, and for the most part they are evidently false; his arguments are mostly bad, and for the most part they are evidently bad. Studying Plato will indeed make you realize how difficult philosophy is, and the study has a particular fascination and a particular pleasure. But it can also be a dispiriting business: for the most part, the student of Plato is preoccupied by a peculiar question - How and why did Plato come to entertain such exotic opinions, to advance such outre arguments?"