Book Description
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.
Customer Reviews:
Great for Greek Students.......2007-01-24
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..........2005-08-28
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.......2005-01-10
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 HEMLOCKý.......2003-06-19
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........2001-03-04
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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Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo (Cliffs Notes)
Charles H. Patterson
Manufacturer: Cliffs Notes
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ASIN: 0822010445 |
Book Description
These four dialogues cover time surrounding the execution of Socrates. As he was charged, tried, and condemned to death, the four dialogues stand as final testaments to his credo of virtue. These are texts that have shaped thousands of years of thought on the meaning of life and personal conduct.
Customer Reviews:
Non Fiction.......2007-09-03
Socrates runs afoul of the authorities and others, and expounds upon the situation that he finds himself at the time, and in the process, you see something of the political and legal system at work in the process, and what some of his followers thought about the whole thing.
Really quite readable.
There are better translations.......2007-03-11
This is a descent translation of Plato, but not the best. It is an easy to understand translation, and there is nothing wrong with that. Tredennick and Tarrant (the translators of this book) have given us a nice translation that is definitely readable and, at times, enjoyable. There's a guy called W.H.D. Rouse that has some nice translations of Plato. They feel like literal translations, although I don't know Greek. I'm not sure if he translated "Euthyphro", but I know that he did the other 3 that are collected in this book (Apology, Crito, and Phaedo). Here is a link to the Rouse translation: Great Dialogues of Plato (Signet Classics)
I would suggest the Jowett translation for its elegance and beauty. (You can actually read the Jowett translation online if you want to; it was done in the 19th century, so it is now a public domain text.) Here are some links to the Jowett translation: The Trial and Death of Socrates: Four Dialogues (Dover Thrift Editions) and Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo (Great Books in Philosophy) and Selected Dialogues of Plato: The Benjamin Jowett Translation (Modern Library Classics).
If I were you I would get this book for the endnotes (it is an awfully cheap book after all). And I would get the Rouse or Jowett translation as well, if for no other reason than to have a second source that you can go to if a particular passage in the Tredennick and Tarrant version confuses you. I have found that this is an invaluable tool to understand translated texts. However, the Tredennick/Tarrant translation uses such simple language that it might not be needed. If you are a philosophy student, or just someone who wants to fully understand and digest the text, I would keep an alternative translation in the holster when reading. (There are, of course, other translations that I haven't mentioned. I am no authority on Plato.)
Here's what is in the book (Tredennick/Tarrant):
- 21 page general introduction.
- 3 or 4 page introduction for "Euthyphro","Apology", and "Crito". There is a 14 page intro. for "Phaedo" (it is the longer and more complicated dialogue).
- 39 pages of endnotes
- 3 page bibliography on works about Socrates--his philosophy, his life, Plato's presentation of him, critical books on Socrates, etc.
- Index of principle names. (It's strange that they decided to do this type of index; it would have been much better if they would have put together a regular index in which the reader could look up certain words like "evil" or "justice" or "truth".
A decent anthology........2004-12-04
This is the kind of text used in those bread & butter Western civ. or survey philosophy courses. The translation is fine, but not particularly critical, literal, interpretive, or anything you can associate with an ideology on how to present philosophy. It's just... the text. Maybe we could call it "pragmatic."
The notes are very nicely done, comfortably introducing the reader to a lot of important background information concerning ancient Greek philosophy and the culture(s) which spawned it. I think this is a fine book for becoming acquainted with Plato, but if you want a deeper understanding, check out Alan Bloom's version of The Republic.
What really to say about the content that other reviewers haven't already mentioned? The four books take us from outside the courthouse all the way through a post mortem wrap-up between the interlocutors. Justice, integrity, immortality of the soul, the afterlife... All of philosophy is just footnotes to this guy, after all.
An excellent work..........2003-02-21
All I have to say is... amazing. Socrates was an incredible philosopher and Plato was an incredible writer... together they make an unbeatable combination.
This is an excellent book for both people who are already familiar with Socrates and for those who would like to become familiar with Socrates.
Socrates sets down principles for life that, in a perfect world, everyone would follow... always questioning your actions and your ideas, trying to get to the root of knowledge and eliminating inconsistencies and contradictions in your logic, dedicating yourself to knowledge and truth rather than pursuing selfish things like money and flesh. This is a book that can help you in many areas of your life and I highly recommend it.
Philosophical Questions That Are Still Relevant Today.......2003-01-24
As Socrates abstained from recording his philosophies, we must thank Plato for having the insight to preserve Socratic thoughts for posterity. As a student of Socrates, it seems that Plato, through his own writings, attempts to preserve the memory of his well respected teacher.
In The Last Days of Socrates, Plato begins with Euthyphro and we see the Socratic method in action. Socrates and Euthyphro discuss the nature of piety, and through a serious of thought provoking questions, Socrates argues for what he feels is the proper relationship between Man and God.
Next, Plato discusses the trial of Socrates by the Athenian aristocracy. Again, we see Socrates using his rhetorical skills in illustrating the hypocrisy and prejudice pervading throughout the Athenian government. Socrates discusses what role a good citizen should play in government. He announces his being a "gadfly" on the hide of the establishment, and we also find Socrates exposing his own intelligence by claiming that he, in fact, knows very little. The Apology is by far my personal favorite section of the book.
After Socrates conviction, we find him discussing the morality of obeying or breaking laws in Crito. He meets with one of his close friends and the two discuss Socrates' options in regard to his death sentence. Here we see Socrates espouse the belief that it is acceptable to break an unjust law, however, one must also accept the consequences for breaking said law in order to preserve the stability of society.
The Last Days of Socrates tackles many complex issues which are as relevant today as they were when first committed to paper in the 4th century B.C. This should be standard reading for any introductory course in political theory, and a must have for anyone interested in philosophy or ethics.
Book Description
1909. Contents: The Apology, Phaedo and Crito of Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett. The Golden Sayings of Epictetus translated by Hastings Crossley. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Translated by George Long.
Book Description
The Phaedo is acknowledged to be one of Plato's greatest masterpieces, showing him both as a philosopher and as a dramatist at the height of his powers. For its moving account of the execution of Socrates, the Phaedo ranks among the supreme literary achievements of antiquity. It is also a seminal document for many ideas deeply ingrained in western culture, and provides one of the best introductions to Plato's thought. This new edition is a revised version of the Clarendon Press translation, and is eminently suitable for readers new to Plato, and ideal for classroom use, thanks to the provision of Stephanus page and letter numbering.
Download Description
After an interval of some months or years, and at Phlius, a town of Peloponnesus, the tale of the last hours of Socrates is narrated to Echecrates and other Phliasians by Phaedo the 'beloved disciple.' The Dialogue necessarily takes the form of a narrative, because Socrates has to be described acting as well as speaking. The minutest particulars of the event are interesting to distant friends, and the narrator has an equal interest in them.
Customer Reviews:
Talks About The Nature Of The Soul.......2006-07-13
I guess the main idea here is whether or not the soul is immortal.
Does the soul exist outside of this physical, earthly experience ?
I've only begun reading Plato after years of reading a lot of other new age type books such as the Edgar Cayce material and Dr. Brian Weiss.
Plato is often consistent with those new age ideas but he expresses his thoughts in a more poetic way.
Plato and those others believed in reincarnation and even being reborn as an animal.
A new age theory about this is that if you go back to 10,500 BC and beyond you had a lot of people running around with for example the body of a human being but the head of a horse, tree branches for arms, etc..
Most people had tails back then.
This was a result of people projecting themselves into this physical dimension and getting entangled in the animal and plant worlds. As they did this across multiple incarnations they started to develop those animal appendages in their physical bodies.
It was in ancient Egypt around 10,500 BC that the priest Ra Ta and other Atlanteans helped these "things" to rid themselves of these animal characteristics.
That "mystery of mysteries" the sphinx is a creature that is part human and part lion. Don't think this doesn't have some very deep and hidden meaning.
Another key point in the book is the death of Socrates. He dies like a true philosopher, not in fear, but calmly.
At one point Socrates actually proves that one plus one is not equal to two. That's power.
Jeff Marzano
Recommended further reading:
Same Soul, Many Bodies : Discover the Healing Power of Future Lives through Progression Therapy
by Brian L. Weiss (Paperback - August 30, 2005)
Lives of the Master: The Rest of the Jesus Story
by Glenn Sanderfur (Paperback - June 1988)
Edgar Cayce's Egypt: Psychic Revelations on the Most Fascinating Civilization Ever Known
by Edgar Cayce, A. R. E. Press (Editor) (Paperback - January 30, 2005)
The true Philosopher is always seeking to free the soul from the body.......2005-12-01
If it was up to me to preserve just one of the dialogues of Plato for posterity it would be the Phaedo. That is because this is the metaphysical core of the teachings of Socrates (the main character) as told by Plato. As is emphasized in the text, death is the main topic of concern for the true philosopher- and that is what is covered here. However, there is nothing morbid about it. This is a message of hope, for Socrates establishes the divinity and immortality of the soul. The good man, he who has purified himself through the love of wisdom (Philosophy) goes to a higher, purer realm to be with like-minded souls and the gods themselves. The bad man also goes to his just reward with those of like character.
If I was to abstract the core truth here it would be that the true philosopher is always trying to free his soul from the body- for only then is the soul free of the distractions and distortions that can corrupt it and keep it from direct perception of the Ideals (Absolute Truth, Good, Beauty, and Justice.)
You easily see where the Church borrowed so much of its basic theological underpinnings. In fact, reading this work abolishes forever in your mind the idea that the pre-Christian pagans were in anyway necessarily savage or barbaric in their deepest spiritual beliefs. This is spirituality more pure than anything preached by the Church- and it is supported by reasoned argument and not appeal to empty faith and authority.
The closing of the dialog is probably the finest depiction in Western literature of the death of a great and good man. You truly concur that Socrates was indeed the wisest and justest and best of all men.
Socrates' final hours.......2005-02-12
Socrates is unique among philosophers, not just for his place among the early Greek philosophers, but also for the fact that he is the most famous philosopher to never write his own books. What we know of Socrates comes from contemporary accounts and students, most particularly Plato.
Set in 399 BCE, the Phaedo is a reconstruction of Socrates final conversations with friends on the day he died. We do not know when this dialogue was written, but it was probably before The Republic (Plato's most famous work, also featuring the figure of Socrates). Like The Republic, this dialogue features a well developed theory of Forms -- these are introduced gradually here, slowly filling out the details of each step. This develops the story of the caves idea from Plato's earlier work in epistemological, metaphysical, moral, and semantic terms. Plato also advances the 'imperfection argument' here -- the idea that when we sense something, it is never perfectly the thing we are thinking of, and that idea or standard to which we relate what we see, hear, feel, etc. is tying into a more perfect Form.
However, the idea of the soul is rather less developed here than in The Republic. The soul is simply mind, or intellect - all emotions are here placed as bodily aspects. This is rather Pythagorean in a fashion, that only the soul grasps the perfect Forms, and so should consist of nothing but reasoning ability, for emotions distort and cloud the perceptions and judgments.
In the end of the Phaedo, we witness Socrates drink the hemlock, without fear or trembling, as a philosopher should know the value of life and welcome death with a firm hope. The story is almost religious in nature here.
David Gallop's translation is good and true to the original (in as much as I can tell from my small Greek learning). It is somewhat tending toward the formal side. This is serious stuff, but in a small number of pages manages to capture much, and this makes it all the more relevant.
Spirit of the ancient.......2005-02-10
I will not quote myself, but I'll evoke the words that I have written here before in the review of Krishnamurti's book. Since you're reading this I guess you're interested in Plato's philosophy and this work in particular. I'll just say few words and then will let you to dive into the book and find the meaning for yourself.
This is the book that belong to Plato's later works, and debate continues whether Socrates in this book is historical Socrates or just voice of Plato. If you take into consideration few Aristotelian lines than first option would be the true one. But, no matter which one is right, Socrates here is presented as few characters of world literature are. I can not speak about philosophy here, so I shall speak about style. Bearing the posture of romantic poets, and if you picture ancient greek dungeon as some reneiscance castle dungeon, you'll have the setting. And tht's it. No quarells, no fightning and vicious murdering, just one of the most beautifull speeches conserning human soul, and only one, diginified, death.
Books like these give me hope that there is still a chance for a world to become the better place.
Socrates & The Immortality of The Soul.......2004-08-06
.
What happens at death? Is the soul immortal? Why does the philosopher seek death but avoid suicide? What is so attractive about death to Socrates?
This is a masterpiece of a book. While Socrates does not prove the immortality of the soul, his arguments for such, as in the "law of opposites," the "theory of recollection" and the combination of the two, make way for a very interesting and mind enhancing read and is a hell of lot more valid, intelligible and religiously inclusive than any of the biblical literalist's security hold in fallacious illusion, or was Socrates and Plato infallibly inspired? Was Homer infallibly inspired? Of course not. In turn, Socrates is counter-argued with the "theory of attunement" and subsequently argues back for the immortality of the soul.
His thoughts which entail the body as the inhibitor of obtaining true wisdom, that philosophy aids a man to go beyond his body, so that at death he can be released from the body and use his wisdom to achieve a higher realm of true wisdom, as the body acts as a place of desires that prevents men from perceiving the world of ideas apart from the world of appearances. The death of the body is the release of the soul and the condition of the soul, either that controlled by desires or that of philosophy that has brought it to a higher realm, will determine where the soul travels to after death.
Socrates further gives us a description of the round, spherical earth. This exposes the fallacy of biblical literalists who attempt to prove biblical divinity by quoting Job 40:22 and Isaiah for the spherical earth, or does that make Socrates inspired? His further description of the earth's hollows by water and the place called Tartarus brings us to the identical words of St. Paul, who certainly was influenced by many non-Christian teachings, which permeated his entire belief system. Also Socrates gets Eastern in the reincarnation of the soul back to the world of desires, including that of animals and insects, which makes this book a fascinating read to say the least. This book is a gem and great masterpiece to contemplate on. I love Plato - and Socrates too.
Customer Reviews:
Superb Translation of One of the Most Important Texts.......2006-10-23
To my mind, this translation surpasses all others with which I am familiar. The translation (1) has a flowing literary style that does justice to the rich feel of reading Plato's own prose, (2) is remarkably precise in its reflecting of the original language, with the result that, when one notices something interesting going on in the language of the translation, one will consistently find it is reproducing what is found in the Greek. In both these ways, this is a very trustworthy text--the reader can confidently presume to be experiencing Plato's writing. The dialogue itself--Plato's _Phaedo_--has few parallels for philosophical, literary and cultural depth and importance. It is the conversation Socrates has on the day of his death with a number of philosophical admirers. It is a rich discussion of the nature of knowledge, the nature of virtue, the ultimate nature of reality and especially the nature of death itself. The introduction by the translators is also uncommonly good for putting the reader in a position to read the text well. This is the only translation of the _Phaedo_ that I will assign to my classes. This translation is a fantastic accomplishment.
Translation.......2006-09-20
Ms. Evan Brann is one of the finest translators of Greek in the country. Using the system laid out by Jacob Kline, Ms. Brann has perfected the ideal of literal translation. She stays with the Greek and allows the reader to decide just what Plato said without getting in the way. The glossaries are particularly useful to those with even a rudimentary knowlege of the language of the Greeks. Do not allow a translator or editor to stand between you and the text: choose Brann.
The true Philosopher is always seeking to free the soul from the body.......2005-12-11
_If it was up to me to preserve just one of the dialogues of Plato for posterity it would be the Phaedo. That is because this is the metaphysical core of the teachings of Socrates (the main character) as told by Plato. As is emphasized in the text, death is the main topic of concern for the true philosopher- and that is what is covered here. However, there is nothing morbid about it. This is a message of hope, for Socrates establishes the divinity and immortality of the soul. The good man, he who has purified himself through the love of wisdom (Philosophy) goes to a higher, purer realm to be with like-minded souls and the gods themselves. The bad man also goes to his just reward with those of like character.
_If I was to abstract the core truth here it would be that the true philosopher is always trying to free his soul from the body- for only then is the soul free of the distractions and distortions that can corrupt it and keep it from direct perception of the Ideals (Absolute Truth, Good, Beauty, and Justice.)
_You easily see where the Church borrowed so much of its basic theological underpinnings. In fact, reading this work abolishes forever in your mind the idea that the pre-Christian pagans were in anyway necessarily savage or barbaric in their deepest spiritual beliefs. This is spirituality more pure than anything preached by the Church- and it is supported by reasoned argument and not appeal to empty faith and authority.
_The closing of the dialog is probably the finest depiction in Western literature of the death of a great and good man. You truly concur that Socrates was indeed the wisest and justest and best of all men.
Ultimate things.......2005-06-11
Socrates is unique among philosophers, not just for his place among the early Greek philosophers, but also for the fact that he is the most famous philosopher to never write his own books. What we know of Socrates comes from contemporary accounts and students, most particularly Plato.
Set in 399 BCE, the Phaedo is a reconstruction of Socrates final conversations with friends on the day he died. We do not know when this dialogue was written, but it was probably before The Republic (Plato's most famous work, also featuring the figure of Socrates). Like The Republic, this dialogue features a well developed theory of Forms -- these are introduced gradually here, slowly filling out the details of each step. This develops the story of the caves idea from Plato's earlier work in epistemological, metaphysical, moral, and semantic terms. Plato also advances the 'imperfection argument' here -- the idea that when we sense something, it is never perfectly the thing we are thinking of, and that idea or standard to which we relate what we see, hear, feel, etc. is tying into a more perfect Form.
However, the idea of the soul is rather less developed here than in The Republic. The soul is simply mind, or intellect - all emotions are here placed as bodily aspects. This is rather Pythagorean in a fashion, that only the soul grasps the perfect Forms, and so should consist of nothing but reasoning ability, for emotions distort and cloud the perceptions and judgments.
In the end of the Phaedo, we witness Socrates drink the hemlock, without fear or trembling, as a philosopher should know the value of life and welcome death with a firm hope. The story is almost religious in nature here.
However, there are other possible readings, and this edition opens these up. This translation is part of a series done by the translators and Focus Publishing of the Plato dialogues. It has an introduction and a glossary of Greek terms, as well as a brief bibliography. The translators avoid a clunky translation by doing some interpretative work, but explain their reasonings in the introduction. They argue in the introduction against many traditional renderings of Phaedo, and as such provide an interesting counterweight to the prevailing editions available.
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The Phaedo: A Platonic Labyrinth
Ronna Burger
Manufacturer: St. Augustine's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1890318582 |
Book Description
Since antiquity the Phaedo has been considered the source of "the twin pillars of Platonism" - the theory of ideas and the immortality of the soul. Burger's attempt to trace the underlying argument of the work as a whole leads to a radical rethinking of the status of those doctrines.
The movement of that argument is marked by the structural division of the dialogue into two halves, linked and separated by a central interlude in which Socrates warns against the great danger of "misology," or loss of trust in logos. That danger, which threatens the very possibility of philosophic inquiry, comes to overshadow the threat posed by the fear of death, which motivated the original series of arguments. The turn this necessitates, from the first to the second half of the dialogue, brings about a transformation of the understanding of knowledge, the ideas, the soul, death, and immortality. With this "second sailing," as Socrates calls it, the "Platonism" presented in the Phaedo emerges as precisely the target of which the dialogue is a critique.
Book Description
Plato is one of the key ancient authors studied by both classicists and philosophers. This volume contains the first eight of Plato's works in the traditional order which appears in most of the manuscripts. The first four, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, ahd Phaedo are grouped by their dramatic settings concerned with the death of Socrates. The Apology and Crito display Socrates' philosophical mission. The Euthyphro discusses piety; the Phaedo proves the immortality of the soul by appeal to Plato's Theory of Forms. The second group of dialogues represent Plato's later work and are grouped according to his own indications; The Cratylus discusses language, the Thaetetus knowledge, the Sophist being and negation, and the Politicus statesmanship. This new edition offers much additional information on the preservation of Plato's text. All primary manuscripts have been checked and in most casesx freshly cololated. Papyrus fragments recently made available that were unknown to previous editors have been in several cases re-examined and their evidence reported, whilst no less important has been the search for previously unreported quotations of Plato in later Greek writers, facilitated by new editions of Neoplatonic writers. All textual problems have been thought through afresh.
Customer Reviews:
Definitive Classical Text.......2003-12-05
These Oxford editions are the definitive Greek texts for Plato's entire body of work. They are the culmination of a vast tradition of scholarly erudition. They include not only a fine edition of the texts, but also an extensive critical apparatus in the footnotes in which alternate readings adopted by other editors are listed. In effect, in this edition, you get the whole history of all other editions of Plato.
Oxford is in the process of putting out a new set of re-edited Plato's. These represent the latest trends in scholarly thought on Plato. However they do not represent any new discoveries--they are only a new set of editorial decisions by a new editor, but the same old material. The new set look quite good so far, but the older edition (By John Burnet, or Ioannes Burnet in Latin) are not rendered obsolete or out of date by this one. My personal preference is for the older Burnet edition.
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A Guided Tour of Five Works by Plato: With Complete Translations of Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo (Death Scene, and "Allegory of the Cave")
Plato , and
Christopher Biffle
Manufacturer: Mayfield Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1559343567 |
Book Description
This accessible supplement makes Plato’s texts come alive for students by showing them how to read, think critically, and write about these key classic works. Engaging interactive devices draw students into an intimate philosophical encounter that they can model in later work in philosophy.
Customer Reviews:
Ideal introduction to the study of philosophy.......2005-05-17
Christopher Biffle's A Guided Tour of Five Works by Plato is an ideal introduction to the study of philosophy as an academic activity. While there are several introductory philosophy books that allow the reader to wander and ponder through the dreamy early stages of philosophical wonder, this book gets down to business. Biffle structures his guided tour as an interactive reader of five of Plato's most important and most accessible dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology and Crito complete; the "Death Scene" from Phaedo, and the "Allegory of the Cave" from Republic.
Through this tour students will have an opportunity to actively engage in philosophy as they move through the text. Biffle prepares the reader for the journey by providing just enough background about Socrates,Plato and the history of Athens to satisfy a rudimentary curiosity. As the reader embarks, he will begin to encounter some of the features which make Biffle's book so valuable. This tour is an adventure in thinking, and the reader is challenged to summarize and extract important developments as the tour progresses. The reader is asked to respond to prompts such as "The main things I want to remember about Socrates and the history of Athens are..." Thus the reader himself becomes a participant in the dialogue.
From this introduction Biffle guides us into the dialogues themselves, beginning with Euthyphro. Each selection is introduced with a series of questions designed to open up the reader's mind to some of the ideas and issues to be explored in the dialogues themselves. During the reading of the dialogue, the reader is asked to underline and annotate the text as he goes; thus the reader becomes actively and critically engaged in the text rather than passively drifting through it. By clarifying and analyzing Plato, the student begins to clarify and analyze his own thinking. This approach to philosophy is also an ideal approach to developing reading, writing and critical thinking skills for students.
Although Biffle's tour can be taken solo (in the capable hands of both Biffle and Plato), it is best taken with a group of fellow travelers who can share the journey. It is a fantastic text for use in a class or as the basis for a philosophy discussion group. There are quizzes and exercises to check understanding, but the book really encourages the reader to develop his own thinking, and ultimately to become a curious and critical questioner of the world--what Socrates or Plato would have called a philosopher.
Best Plato Textbook is a Superb Teaching Tool.......2004-03-18
The book is an excellent teaching tool for undergraduate and graduate level Philosophy courses. This text would be the only one I would use at the high school level (and Plato should be taught in GATE and AP type English classes, as he was back in the "good old days" when the goal of academic 'arete' had real importance in lesson planning). The book includes the dialogues surrounding the trial and death of Socrates, Euthyphro, Crito, and Apology, the Death Scene of Socrates from the Phaedo, and the "Allegory of the Cave" from the Republic. While the translations are not always the best, they are very good, come from the greatest source (Jowett) and quite sufficient for communicating all the important points in the dialogues.
Best of all are the copious margins which surround the text on every page and serve the wonderful purpose of teaching students to annotate their text with marginalia. The creation of marginalia is an ancient scholarly art, quintessentially described by Edmond Bourdoux Szekeley, one of the last of the old world scholars of that grand continental tradition known as the Sorbonne Method, which he describes in his now out of print masterpiece, "The Art of Study". In that book, Szekeley details the method by which, through nearly a millinium, successive generations of Sorbonne scholars (dating back before Aquinas), parsed and analyzed arguments and extracted the hermaneutic esssence of their texts.
Biffle provides cues and prompts with relevant and incisive questions (he knows Bloom's Taxonomy as well as he knows his Philosophy), which not only makes students accountable to do the reading (you can collect your students' texts to see if their doing it), but provides the student with a time-proven, eminently productive study skill.
Biffle also provides excellent background material, supplementary writing exercises, and material for quizzes, all you really need.
A few points which Biffle addresses "to the teacher" in his introduction are in order: 1) "My philosophy students need a lot of practice in orderly thinking and writing. They need practice in following a logical pattern, giving reasons for assertions, clarifying points with examples, and quoting supporting material from a text. There is plenty of practice here." 2) "The truth is most students will read Plato's dialogues only once in their lives. We need to slow down that precious reading and make it as fruitful as possible. The reading and writing tasks I have incorporated in this book are designed to help students underline, write in margins, reread, paraphrase, outline, and eventually analyze philosophical classics in an orderly way."
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