  If the Sophist and Statesman are philosophical  exercises, there may be a good reason why the final dialogue of the  trilogy, the Philosopher, is missing. Plato would spoil the  lesson if he wrote it for us (cf. Dorter 1994, 236). If we have  learned how to investigate philosophical problems in the  Sophist and Statesman, Plato may be challenging his audience to search for the philosopher themselves, using the  techniques and recommendations these dialogues provide (M. L. Gill, 2012).