Stern, Paul, Socratic Rationalism and Political Philosophy: An Interpretation of Plato's Phaedo, New York: State University of New York Press, 1993.

Excerpt:

I undertake this study of the Phaedo in order to understand the rationalism of Plato’s Socrates. It is a striking feature of the contemporary intellectual situation that a study such as this can be of more than simply historical interest. But the question of the character of Socratic rationalism has been made a vital question by those contemporary thinkers, beginning with Nietzsche, who doubt the availability of objectively valid answers to our deepest questions—who doubt, in other words, that reason can guide life.