Goldstein’s Plato seems to have been modeled on the character of Socrates, because he is unfailingly modest and polite — and is thus quite unlike the “philosophy-jeerers” among scientists with whom she wrestles at various points in the book. - http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/books/review/plato-at-the-googleplex-by-rebecca-newberger-goldstein.html