Plato, I, Euthyphro. Apology. Crito. Phaedo. Phaedrus (Loeb Classical Library)

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EDITORIAL REVIEW



Plato, the great philosopher of Athens, was born in 427 BCE. In early manhood an admirer of Socrates, he later founded the famous school of philosophy in the grove Academus. Much else recorded of his life is uncertain; that he left Athens for a time after Socrates' execution is probable; that later he went to Cyrene, Egypt, and Sicily is possible; that he was wealthy is likely; that he was critical of 'advanced' democracy is obvious. He lived to be 80 years old. Linguistic tests including those of computer science still try to establish the order of his extant philosophical dialogues, written in splendid prose and revealing Socrates' mind fused with Plato's thought.



In Laches, Charmides, and Lysis, Socrates and others discuss separate ethical conceptions. Protagoras, Ion, and Meno discuss whether righteousness can be taught. In Gorgias, Socrates is estranged from his city's thought, and his fate is impending. The Apology (not a dialogue), Crito, Euthyphro, and the unforgettable Phaedo relate the trial and death of Socrates and propound the immortality of the soul. In the famous Symposium and Phaedrus, written when Socrates was still alive, we find the origin and meaning of love. Cratylus discusses the nature of language. The great masterpiece in ten books, the Republic, concerns righteousness (and involves education, equality of the sexes, the structure of society, and abolition of slavery). Of the six so-called dialectical dialogues Euthydemus deals with philosophy; metaphysical Parmenides is about general concepts and absolute being; Theaetetus reasons about the theory of knowledge. Of its sequels, Sophist deals with not-being; Politicus with good and bad statesmanship and governments; Philebus with what is good. The Timaeus seeks the origin of the visible universe out of abstract geometrical elements. The unfinished Critias treats of lost Atlantis. Unfinished also is Plato's last work of the twelve books of Laws (Socrates is absent from it), a critical discussion of principles of law which Plato thought the Greeks might accept.



The Loeb Classical Library edition of Plato is in twelve volumes.

PRODUCT DETAILS

Publisher: Loeb Classical Library
Pub. Date: 30th November 1998
Catalog: Book
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Pages: 608
Ean: 9780674990401
Isbn: 0674990404

ABOUT THIS BOOK

USER REVIEWS

Great for Greek Students
~ Written on Jan 24, 2007. 1 out of 1 users found this review helpful.

The translation is easy to follow when looking at both languages, which can sometimes be difficult due to certain liberties most translators rightly take to make the English sound better, yet in this Loeb both good English is used and it sticks to the Greek for the most part. This quality makes it helpful for the student of Greek who needs some help while translating if an instructor is not available.

Interesting read...
~ Written on Aug 28, 2005. 1 out of 11 users found this review helpful.

I read this book in college when I was learning about Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle...and it's been on the bookself since...but I still read it from time to time...interesting if you're into philosophy or history

Useful for the specialist and the student
~ Written on Jan 10, 2005. 14 out of 14 users found this review helpful.

Like most volumes in the Loeb series, the emphasis is not on word-for-word precision in the translation, but on acheiving greater readability in broader terms. Since the original text in ancient Greek is provided on the facing page, the editors assume that anyone with a little knowledge of Greek can supplement the looseness of the translation by referring to the original. And in general, the compromises made in this way are good ones throughout the series. This particular translation is one of the more succesful in the Loeb series and manages to chart a course quite close to the original while also catching the flavor of idiomatic English.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED WHILE IMBIBING THE HEMLOCK�
~ Written on Jun 19, 2003. 5 out of 24 users found this review helpful.

The four books in this volume are foundational for anyone interested in Western philosophy. They touch on the "BIG" themes like the gods, Truth, Wisdom and Death...

Death is the ultimate bummer in the ancient Greek worldview. It is not a pretty picture. As seen in the Odyssey, death can be a very nasty place. Even for the best---heroes like Achilles, death is like an eternal waiting room with no eventual appointment. How unsurprising then, that Socrates, who loved to turn Greek convention on its ear, would envision death as the ultimate journey, the ultimate freedom.

Socrates sees the chief value of death as the soul's final separation from the horrid constraints of the body. According to him, the body holds back the soul. With it, man can never encounter the ultimate justice, beauty and truth. Without the body, all things seem possible to Socrates. As far as this line of thinking goes, I find Socrates' thought to be very similar to some forms of Buddhism and the more extreme kinds of Christian asceticism (largely influenced by Plato's Socrates).

However, Socrates goes beyond this. He claims that there is some kind of reward that awaits those who willingly come to death. A seat among the gods he calls it...

How ironic then that Socrates dies amidst the worldly concern of a debt that he owes.

How does that old line go? Something about folks trying to save their own life losing it?

A necessity to any philosophy/greek student.
~ Written on Mar 4, 2001. 14 out of 14 users found this review helpful.

The mirror text offered in this book is of the most importance to any serious philosophy student. However for the mirror text to have any use you must know some Greek. The Greek text is on one side with Fowler's english translation on the other. It serves as an excellent reference whether using the Fowler translation or another translation because at any point where a misunderstanding occurs which may be due to a word choice in translation, one can simply look at the greek. It serves as a great reference for a person who takes Plato seriously and knows some Greek.

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