 Preface to Plato had a profound impact almost immediately after publication , but an impact that was complex and inconsistent . The book 's claims refer to the ideas of a number of different fields : the study ( then fairly new ) of oral literature as well as Greek philosophy and Greek philology ; the book also acknowledges the influence of literary theory , particularly structuralism . The 1960s were a period in which those fields were growing further apart , and the reaction to Preface from each of them was starkly different . Among classicists the response ranged from indifference to derision , with the majority simply questioning the details of Havelock 's history of literacy , pointing both to earlier instances of writing than Havelock thinks possible or to later instances of oral influence . Philosophy , particularly Platonic scholarship , was moving in a different direction at the time , and Havelock neither engages nor was cited by the principal movers in that field . However , the book was embraced by literary theorists , students of the transition to literacy , and others in fields as diverse as psychology and anthropology . 
