  The Sophist and Statesman are late Platonic  dialogues, whose relative dates are established by their stylistic  similarity to the Laws, a work that was apparently still  “on the wax” at the time of Plato’s death (Diogenes  Laertius 3.37). These dialogues are important in exhibiting Plato’s views on method and metaphysics after he criticized his own most  famous contribution to the history of philosophy, the theory of  separate, immaterial forms in the Parmenides. The  Statesman also offers a transitional statement of Plato’s  political philosophy between the Republic and the  Laws. The Sophist and Statesman show the  author’s increasing interest in mundane and practical knowledge. In  this respect they seem more down-to-earth and Aristotelian in tone  than dialogues dated to Plato’s middle period such as the  Phaedo and the Republic. This entry will focus on  method and metaphysics.