  The Sophist and Statesman strike many scholars as  more dogmatic than other Platonic dialogues. The Stranger sets out to define the sophist, the statesman, and the philosopher, claiming that they are three distinct kinds (Sophist 217a–b); the two  existing dialogues appear to give successful definitions of their  target kinds and to present and defend significant methodological and metaphysical positions. The Sophist arguably solves the  problem of false statement, one of a family of problems that had  dogged other Platonic dialogues, including the Theaetetus.