Commentary

[in chronological order]

Leo Strauss on Plato’s Republic

- Strauss, Leo. "Transcript of Seminar on Plato's Republic." University of Chicago, 1957. Leo Strauss Archives. http://leostrausscenter.uchicago.edu/course/republic
A transcript of a seminar given by Leo Strauss at the University of Chicago in 1957 on Plato’s Republic. Excerpt: Leo Strauss:. . . [The Greek title of Plato’s Republic is politeia.] This word is ordinarily translated as constitution. This means… More

Plato’s Parmenides: A Sketch

- Benardete, Seth, "Plato's Parmenides: A Sketch," The Archaeology of the Soul: Platonic Readings in Ancient Poetry and Philosophy, ed. Ronna Burger and Michael Davis, St. Augustine Press, 2012.

Eidos and Diaeresis in Plato’s Statesman

- Benardete, Seth, "Eidos and Diaeresis in Plato's Statesman," The Archaeology of the Soul: Platonic Readings in Ancient Poetry and Philosophy, ed. Ronna Burger and Michael Davis, St. Augustine Press, 2012.

Divine Law and Political Philosophy in Plato’s Laws

- Lutz, Mark J., Divine Law and Political Philosophy in Plato’s Laws, DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2012.
About the Book: All over the world secular rationalist governments and judicial authorities have been challenged by increasingly forceful claims made on behalf of divine law. For those who believe that reason—not faith—should be the basis of politics and… More

Understanding Plato by Mark Blitz

- Blitz, Mark "Understanding Plato: Beauty and the Greater Hippias," Paper delivered at the Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard University in October, 2011.
First lines: Why should we bother to understand Plato? The reason is that he is an intelligent man who offers the first comprehensive rational reflection on human affairs, happiness, and its connection to politics. Much of what he says is therefore likely to… More

On Translating the Sophist

- Brann, Eva, "On Translating the Sophist," The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates' Conversations and Plato's Writings, Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2011, 304-20.
Excerpt: In 1995, I was asked by the series adviser Keith Whitaker to do a translation for the nascent Focus Philosophical Library; Plato was suggested as a possibility. The Focus Press under its editor Ron Pullins publishes fresh translations, intended to be… More

Nonbeing Enfolded in Being: The Sophist

- Brann, Eva, "Nonbeing Enfolded in Being: The Sophist," The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates' Conversations and Plato's Writings, Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2011, 294-303.
Excerpt: Parmenides’ discovery of Being as One and as the one and only truth is, I think, the primordial event of First Philosophy. But in named Nonbeing so as to proscribe it as unthinkable and unsayable, he establishes it—an unintended… More

Introduction to the Sophist

- Brann, Eva, "Introduction to the Sophist," The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates' Conversations and Plato's Writings, Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2011, 278-93.
Excerpt: The drama of the Sophist is part of a continuing conversation. Three of its participants had talked the day before: Socrates who is known to the world as a philosopher; the brilliant young geometer Theaetetus who so uncannily resembles the ugly… More

Knowledge and Politics: The Statesman

- Mark Blitz, "Knowledge and Politics, The Statesman," Plato's Political Philosophy, Johns Hopkins Press, 2010.
Excerpt: “The Statesman directly follows the Sophist. Its purpose is to define the politikos whom we may call the statesman, the political man, the political scientist, or the political knower. It means especially to explore the place of knowledge in… More

Philosophy and Politics: The Republic

- Blitz, Mark, "Philosophy and Politics: The Republic," Plato's Political Philosophy, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010, 166-90.
Excerpt: We have now discussed several experiences that are at the root of philosophy, and a phenomenon, beauty, that helps to define both ethical and intellectual virtue. It is therefore reasonable to turn next to Plato’s Republic. For, beyond any… More

Plato’s Sophist 223 b1-7

- Benardete, Seth, "Plato's Sophist 223 b1-7," The Archaeology of the Soul: Platonic Readings in Ancient Poetry and Philosophy, Ronna Burger and Michael Davis, eds., South Bend: St. Augustine's Press, 2010.

Knowledge and Politics: The Statesman

- Blitz, Mark, "Knowledge and Politics: The Statesman," Plato's Political Philosophy, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010, 241-68.
Excerpt: The Stranger and young Socrates begin to search for the statesman by agreeing that he is characterized by knowledge or art. What, then, defines his art as opposed to other arts? They first divide all knowledge into practical and cognitive science,… More

Virtue and Politics: The Laws

- Blitz, Mark, "Virtue and Politics: The Laws," Plato's Political Philosophy, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010, 82-114.
Excerpt: We pursue our study of virtue by considering more fully Plato’s understanding of its place in politics. His thematic discussion of politics occurs in three dialogues, the Laws, the Republic, and the Statesman. As we have seen, moreover,… More

Plato’s “Laws”: A Critical Guide

- Bobonich, Christopher, ed., Plato's Laws: A Critical Guide, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
About the Book: Long understudied, Plato’s Laws has been the object of renewed attention in the past decade, and is now considered to be his major work of political philosophy besides the Republic. In his last dialogue, Plato returns to the project of… More

Prudes, Perverts, and Tyrants: Plato’s Gorgias and the Politics of Shame

- Tarnopolsky, Christina H., Prudes, Perverts, and Tyrants: Plato's Gorgias and the Politics of Shame, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.
About: In recent years, most political theorists have agreed that shame shouldn’t play any role in democratic politics because it threatens the mutual respect necessary for participation and deliberation. But Christina Tarnopolsky argues that not every… More

The Ironic Defense of Socrates: Plato’s Apology

- Leibowitz, David M., The Ironic Defense of Socrates: Plato's Apology, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Excerpt: Thirty-five Platonic dialogues have come down to us as genuine. Socrates is present in at least thirty-three and the chief speaker in at least twenty-seven. Yet he is mentioned in a title only this once. Plato’s Socrates first comes to sigh,… More

On the Timaeus

- Benardete, Seth, "On the Timaeus," The Argument of the Action: Essays on Greek Poetry and Philosophy, ed. Ronna Burger and Michael Davis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, 376-95.
Excerpt: Thirty years ago, when I submitted a paper to Leo Strauss on Timaeus’s science fiction, he wrote back to say that Plato’s Timaeus for him had always been sealed with 77 seals, but he thought he saw two things clearly: Timaeus’s… More

Moral and Criminal Responsibility in Plato’s Laws

- Pangle, Lorraine Smith, "Moral and Criminal Responsibility in Plato's Laws," American Political Science Review 103, no. 3 (August 2009), 456-73.
Abstract: In his most practical work, the “Laws”, Plato combines a frank statement of the radical Socratic thesis that virtue is knowledge and vice involuntary with a prudential acceptance of the political community’s need for retributive… More

The Trial and Death of Socrates

- Zuckert, Catherine H., "The Trial and Death of Socrates," Plato's Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Excerpt: Alfred North Whitehead’s quip that all subsequent philosophy is merely a footnote to Plato has often been repeated, but those who repeat it do not seem to have thought much about the difference between the source and the scholarship on it.… More

The Rhetoric of Morality and Philosophy: Plato’s Gorgias and Phaedrus

- Bernadete, Seth, The Rhetoric of Morality and Philosophy: Plato's Gorgias and Phaedrus, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Excerpt: To put side by side an interpretation of one Platonic dialogue with that of another does not make a book; but although Gorgias and Phaedrus are not as matched a pair as Sophist and Statesman are, something can still be said for putting them… More

Socrates on Friendship and Community: Reflections on Plato’s Symposium, Phaedrus, and Lysis

- Nichols, Mary P., Socrates on Friendship and Community: Reflections on Plato's Symposium, Phaedrus, and Lysis, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Excerpt: Any argument that the philosophic pursuits of Plato’s Socrates exemplify an understanding of love and friendship supportive of political life, as I make in this book, must confront the charges against Socrates made by his own political… More

Plato’s Parmenides: Parmenides’ Critique of Scrates and Plato’s Critique of Parmenides

- Zuckert, Catherine H., "Plato's Parmenides: Parmenides' Critique of Scrates and Plato's Critique of Parmenides," Plato's Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2009, 147-79.
Excerpt: The conversation depicted in the Parmenides between the elderly Eleatic and Socrates is usually thought to have occurred in 450. The Parmenides thus gives Plato’s readers their first view of the young Socrates, when he was eighteen or… More

Using Pre-Socratic Philosophy to Support Political Reform: The Athenian Stranger

- Zucker, Catherine H., "Using Pre-Socratic Philosophy to Support Political Reform: The Athenian Stranger," Plato's Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009, 51-146.
Excerpt: The Laws and the Epinomis are the only Platonic dialogues in which Socrates does not appear. They are usually thought to be the last dialogues Plato wrote. All three of the interlocutors are elderly, and there is an ancient report that Laws was… More

Timaeus-Critias: Completing or Challenging Socratic Political Philosophy?

- Zuckert, Catherine H., "Timaeus-Critias: Completing or Challenging Socratic Political Philosophy?," Plato's Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009, 420-81.
Excerpt: Socrates concluded his discussion of the city in speech, which he proposed in the Republic, by observing that it did not matter whether this city ever actually came into being, because it would serve as “a paradigm laid up in heaven for the… More

Socrates’ Positive Teaching

- Zuckert, Catherine H., "Socrates' Positive Teaching," Plato's Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009, 281-419.
Excerpt: In the Apology Socrates says that, in response to the oracle’s paradoxical pronouncement that there was no one wiser than he, he went first to question the politicians because they claimed to know what is good. But in the first conversations… More

What Can We Learn from Political Theory?

- Strauss, Leo, "What Can We Learn from Political Theory?" Review of Politics 69, no. 4 (Fall 2007).  Talk given in July 1942 at the New School for Social Research.
Excerpt: The title of this lecture is not entirely of my own choosing. I do not like very much the term political theory; I would prefer to speak of political philosophy. Since this terminological question is not entirely verbal, I beg leave to say a few… More

The Development of Plato’s Political Theory

- George Klosko, The Development of Plato's Political Theory, Oxford University Press, 2007.
From the publisher: The Development of Plato’s Political Theory provides a clear, scholarly account of Plato’s political theory in the context of the social and political events of his time. This second edition has been thoroughly revised to take… More

The Cambridge Companion to Plato’s Republic

- Ferrari, G. R. F., ed., The Cambridge Companion to Plato's Republic, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Excerpt: When is it that we choose to journey with companions? Most often, I suppose, when we want to make the journey fuller, more pleasant, more vivid. But we may also want a fellow traveler to point out landmarks we might be missing or perhaps to assure us… More

Plato: Political Philosophy

- Malcolm Schofield, Plato: Political Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2006.
From the publisher: Plato is the best known and most widely studied of all the ancient Greek philosophers. Malcolm Schofield, a leading scholar of ancient philosophy, offers a lucid and accessible guide to Plato’s political thought, enormously… More

Plato and the Virtue of Courage

- Rabieh, Linda. Plato and the Virtue of Courage, Baltimore: JHU Press, 2006.
Primarily an interpretation of Plato’s dialogue on courage, the Laches, but also the Republic. From the publisher: Plato and the Virtue of Courage canvasses contemporary discussions of courage and offers a new and controversial account of Plato’s… More

Philosopher-Kings: The Argument of Plato’s Republic

- Reeve, C. D. C., Philosopher Kings: The Argument of Plato's Republic, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2006.
Excerpt: Book I of the Republic differs markedly in philosophical style from its fellows. In it we find Socrates questioning all and sundry about what justice is, using the elenchus to refute them, and refusing to provide any positive answers of his own.… More

Metaphysics and Method in Plato’s Statesman

- Sayre, Kenneth M., Metaphysics and Method in Plato's Statesman, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Excerpt: The Statesman begins with Socrates thanking Theodorus for introducing him to Theaetetus and the Stranger from Elea. After a bantering interchange on the relative values of sophistry, statesmanship, and philosophy, and after acquiescing to the… More

The Unity of Plato’s Gorgias

- Stauffer, Devin, The Unity of Plato's Gorgias Rhetoric, Justice, and the Philosophic Life, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Excerpt: Few philosophers have endured more criticism and abuse in modern times than Plato. As one of the great figures of the classical tradition, Plato was subjected to powerful attacks by the founders of modern philosophy and their followers, who set out… More

Making Something from Nothing: On Plato’s Hipparchus

- Davis, Michael, "Making Something from Nothing: On Plato's Hipparchus," The Review of Politics 68 (2006), 547-63.
Abstract: Plato’s Hipparchus is generally not taken particularly seriously; it is thought either spurious or negligible. Yet its theme, love of the good, places it at the summit of philosophy, at least as Socrates presents it in the Republic. Why,… More

Plato’s Republic: A Study

- Rosen, Stanley, Plato's Republic: A Study, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.
Excerpt: Plato’s Republic is one of those works in the history of philosophy that is both excessively familiar and inexhaustibly mysterious. It has been studied endlessly by a wide range of readers, specialists and amateurs alike, and has become a… More

City and Soul in Plato’s Republic

- Ferrari, G. R. F., City and Soul in Plato's Republic, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
Excerpt: In this short book I attempt to say what Plato is getting at in the Republic. That is a grand ambition for a slim volume. My strategy has been to trace one bright thread, the comparison between the structure of a society and that of the individual… More

Plato and the Good: Illuminating the Darkling Vision

- Desjardins, Rosemary, Plato and the Good: Illuminating the Darkling Vision, Boston, MA: Brill Publishers, 2004.
Excerpt: Named for a young man whose contribution to the dialogue is largely significant silence, the Philebus explores the notion of good in the context of human life. But right away we run into difficulty. It turns out that, for the Greeks as for us, there… More

The Philosopher in Plato’s Statesman

- Miller, Mitchell, The Philosopher in Plato's Statesman, Las Vegas, NV: Parmenidies Publishing, 2004.
Excerpt: In contemporary writings on Plato it is almost commonplace to remark that he is at once a profound philosopher and dramatist and teacher. Even by its form, however, this remark may confess more about contemporary scholarship and higher education… More

Time in the Timaeus

- Brann, Eva, "Time in the Timaeus," The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates' Conversations and Plato's Writings, Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2004, 273-77.
Excerpt: In the dialogue named after him, Timaeus has the divine Craftsman, who is making the heavens, say: He thought of making a certain movable image of eternity, and, at once with ordering heaven, he made an eternal image going according to number, that… More

The Music of the Republic by Eva Brann

- Brann, Eva, "The Music of the Republic," The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates' Conversations and Plato's Writings, Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2004, 108-245.
Excerpt: Survey of Arguments I. Mythos A. The Republic is composed of concentric rings encompassing a center. [116] B. The outer ring represents Socrates’ descent into the house of Pluto-Cephalus (Books I and IX-X). [116]

Imitative Poetry: Book X of the Republic

- Brann, Eva, "Imitative Poetry: Book X of the Republic," The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates' Conversations and Plato's Writings, Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2004, 256-72.
Excerpt: A mindful reader of the grand finale of Plato’s Republic, the myth of the soul’s fore- and afterlife in the cosmos, might well feel scandalized. Twice in the work Socrates has inveighed against myth-making and vision-inducing poetry.… More

Introduction to Reading the Republic

- Brann, Eva, "Introduction to Reading the Republic," The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates' Conversations and Plato's Writings, Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2004, 88-107.
Excerpt: The Republic is a dialogue, that is to say, a conversation. Since it is a conversation recorded between the covers of a book we cannot help but begin by reading it, but I think the author wants us as soon as possible to join it, to be converted… More

Why Justice? The Answer of the Republic

- Brann, Eva, "Why Justice? The Answer of the Republic," The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates' Conversations and Plato's Writings, Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2004, 246-55.
Excerpt: In literature as in life, justice is taken to be something good, and there are two questions about “good” that are hard to ask. The harder one is “Why is good better than bad?” When Stan leaps over the wall into Milton’s… More

The Tyrant’s Temperance: Charmides

- Brann, Eva, "The Tyrant's Temperance: Charmides," The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates' Conversations and Plato's Writings, Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2004, 66-87.
Excerpt: Let me here bring in the subtitle of the Charmides. We don’t know who supplied it, but it is quite accurate: “Concerning Temperance: Tentative.” The dialogue is certainly tentative; it makes an unsuccessful try at discovering the… More

Introduction to the Phaedo

- Brann, Eva, "Introduction to the Phaedo" and "Socrates' Legacy: Plato's Phaedo," The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates' Conversations and Plato's Writings, Philadelphia: Paul Dry, 2004.
Excerpt: In the first book of his Inquiries, Herodotus tells the story of Solon and Croesus. The Athenian wise man gives the Lydian tyrant a piece of advice. “Look to the end,” he says, if you want to know whether a human life has really been… More

Plato’s Parmenides

- Scolnicov, Samuel, Plato's Parmenides, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003.
Excerpt: Of all Plato’s dialogues, the Parmenides is notoriously the most difficult to interpret. Scholars of all periods have disagreed about its aims and subject matter. The interpretations have ranged from reading the dialogue as an introduction to the… More

Of Myth, Life, and War in Plato’s Republic

- Baracchi, Claudia, Of Myth, Life, and War in Plato's Republic, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.
Excerpt: Yet another work on Plato, on that most universally recognized among the Platonic dialogues—the Republic. The Republic of Plato (so we call it, today, in this part of the world): a seminal text, inaugurating an epoch of which we are still… More

Plato’s Utopia Recast: His Later Ethics and Politics

- Bobonich, Christopher, Plato’s Utopia Recast: His Later Ethics and Politics, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
About the Book: Plato’s Utopia Recast is an illuminating reappraisal of Plato’s later works, which reveals radical changes in his ethical and political theory. Christopher Bobonich examines later dialogues, with a special emphasis upon the Laws,… More

The Essence of the Truth: On Plato’s Parable of the Cave

- Heidegger, Martin, The The Essence of the Truth: On Plato's Parable of the Cave, New York: Continuum, 2002.
Excerpt: We wish to consider the essence of truth. ‘Truth’: what is that? The answer to the question ‘what is that?’ brings us to the ‘essence’ of a thing. ‘Table’: What is that? ‘Mountain,… More

The Speech of Alcibiades: A Reading of the Symposium

- Nussbaum, Martha C., "The Speech of Alcibiades: A Reading of the Symposium," The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 165-195.
Excerpt: He was, to begin with, beautiful. He was endowed with a physical grace and splendor that captivated the entire city. They did not decline as he grew, but flourished at each stage with new authority and power. He was always highly conscious of his… More

On Plato’s Symposium

- Strauss, Leo, On Plato's Symposium, ed. Seth Benardete, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Excerpt: This course will be on Plato’s political philosophy and it will be conducted in the form of an explanation and an interpretation of the Symposium. by way of introduction I have to answer these two questions: (1) Why do we study Plato’s… More

The Protagoras: A Science of Practical Reasoning

- Nussbaum, Martha C., "The Protagoras: A Science of Practical Reasoning," The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001, 89-121.
Excerpt: Throughout the dialogues that we shall study here, Plato’s elaboration of radical ethical proposals is motivated by an acute sense of the problems caused by ungoverned luck in human life. The need of human beings for philosophy is, for him,… More

Friendship and Human Neediness in Plato’s Lysis

- Pangle, Lorraine Smith, "Friendship and Human Neediness in Plato's Lysis," Ancient Philosophy 21, no. 2 (2001), 305-23.
Excerpt: Recent years have seen a striking resurgence of interest in the theme of friendship in classical moral philosophy. This development is but one manifestation of a broader turn in ethical and political thought. Like the current interest in identity… More

Names and Nature in Plato’s Cratylus

- Barney, Rachel, Names and Nature in Plato's Cratylus, New York: Routledge, 2001.
Excerpt: The Cratylus is Plato’s most extended discussion of language—more precisely, of ‘the correctness of names’—and one of his most enigmatic dialogues. As such, it has attracted a daunting mass of interpretive debate, but there is… More

‘This story isn’t true’: Madness, Reason and Recantation in the Phaedrus

- Nussbaum, Martha C., "'This story isn't true: Madness, Reason, and Recantation in the Phaedrus," The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 200-34.
Excerpt: ‘My dear friend Phaedrus’, calls Socrates. ‘Where are you going? And where do you come from”? So begins this self-critical and questioning dialogue. Socrates has just caught sight of this impressive young person, whose name… More

On Plato’s Phaedo

- Benardete, Seth, "On Plato's Phaedo," The Argument of the Action: Essays on Greek Poetry and Philosophy, eds. Ronna Burger and Michael Davis, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Excerpt: I wish to discuss four things in Plato’s Phaedo. First, the intention of the dialogue as a whole; second, the plan or structure of the Phaedo, third, some arguments of the Phaedo, and fourth, the reason for the structure of the dialogue.

Plato’s Theaetetus: On the Way of the Logos

- Benardete, Seth, "Plato's Theaetetus: On the Way of the Logos," The Argument of the Action: Essays on Greek Poetry and Philosophy, eds. Ronna Burger and Michael Davis, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Excerpt: The opening of the Theaetetus is curious. The report we have of another opening of nearly the same length indicates that it was always a curiosity. If both openings are Plato’s, and the rest of the dialogue they preface were not different,… More

On Plato’s Sophist

- Benardete, Seth, "On Plato's Sophist," The Argument of the Action, Ronna Burger and Michael Davis, eds., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, 323-52.
Excerpt: Once the stranger takes over the discussion at the beginning of the Sophist and agrees to discuss the sophist, the statesman, and the philosopher, it is hard to remember that Socrates had arranged to meet with Theodorus, Theaetetus, and young… More

The Plan of Plato’s Statesman

- Benardete, Seth, "The Plan of Plato’s Statesman," The Argument of the Action: Essays on Greek Poetry and Philosophy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, 354-75.
Excerpt: One one realizes that the unemployed king could be the wise man in charge of himself, it is possible to reinterpret the Stranger’s fourth piece of evidence that politics is a gnostic science. He says that the king’s hands and body… More

Plato’s “Laws” by Seth Benardete

- Benardete, Seth, Plato's "Laws": The Discovery of Being, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
About the Book: The Laws was Plato’s last work, his longest, and one of his most difficult. In contrast to the Republic, which presents an abstract ideal not intended for any actual community, the Laws seems to provide practical guidelines for the… More

Protagoras’s Myth and Logos

- Benardete, Seth, "Protagoras's Myth and Logos," The Argument of the Action: Essays on Greek Poetry and Philosophy, ed. Ronna Burger and Michael Davis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, 186-97.

On Plato’s Lysis

- Benardete, Seth, "On Plato's Lysis," The Argument of the Action: Essays on Greek Poetry and Philosophy, ed. Ronna Burger and Michael Davis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, 198-230.
Excerpt: In the Lysis Plato has Socrates presents himself at his sleaziest. He reports how he undertook to pimp for the silly Hippothales and succeeded first in smashing the false pride of Lysis and then in breaking down the distinction between love and… More

Plato’s Laches: A Question of Definition

- Bernadete, Seth, "Plato's Laches: A Question of Definition," The Argument of the Action: Essays on Greek Poetry and Philosophy, ed. Ronna Burger and Michael Davis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, 257-76.
Excerpt: The Laches records the meeting between Socrates and the inglorious sons of Thucycides and Aristides, on the one hand, and, on the other, the now-famous generals Laches and Nicias. They meet sometime after 424 B.C., the battle of Delium, and before… More

On Interpreting Plato’s Charmides

- Bernadete, Seth, "On Interpreting Plato's Charmides," The Argument of the Action: Essays on Greek Poetry and Philosophy, ed. Ronna Burger and Michael Davis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, 231-56.
Excerpt: The Charmides is about sophrosune, “moderation and self-knowledge”; but part of Socrates’ original question in the dialogue is about the state of philosophy in Athens; and since self-knowledge is presumably the mark of… More

Physics and Tragedy: On Plato’s Cratylus

- Benardete, Seth, "Physics and Tragedy: On Plato's Cratylus," The Argument of the Action: Essays on Greek Poetry and Philosophy, eds. Seth Benardete, Ronna Burger, and Michael Davis, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
The Cratylus seems to be a caricature of a Platonic dialogue. It gives us Socrates as seen in the distorting mirror of an alien inspiration. It begins as a farce and ends as a tragedy: Socrates finally invokes the “ideas” like so many dei ex… More

Plato’s Symposium

- Rosen, Stanley, Plato's Symposium, 3rd ed., South Bend: St. Augustine's Press, 1999.
Book description (from the publisher): This is the first full-length study of the Symposium to be published in English [originally published in 1967], and one of the first English works on Plato to take its bearings by the dramatic form of the Platonic… More

On the Socratic Education: An Introduction to the Shorter Platonic Dialogues

- Bruell, Christopher, On the Socratic Education: An Introduction to the Shorter Platonic Dialogues, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999.
Excerpt: Nothing is so well established in our Western democracies today as the right of each to seek happiness in his or her own way. It is as if a pass to that effect had been issued to us at birth. This much is obvious. Less obvious is the fact that… More

Plato’s Doctrine of Truth

- Heidegger, Martin, "Plato's Doctrine of Truth," trans. Thomas Sheehan, Pathmarks, ed. William McNeill, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998, 155-82.
Whatever one makes of Heidegger’s own views, or his criticism of Plato and what he calls the Platonic tradition, this essay offers a profound meditation on Plato’s Cave and Plato’s “doctrine” of truth. Excerpt: The knowledge that… More

Inside and Outside the Republic

- Lear, Jonathan, "Inside and Outside the Republic," Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998, 219-46.
Excerpt: An engaged reader of the Republic must at some point wonder how—or if—it all fits together. There seems to be jumbled within that text a challenge to conventional justice, a political theory, a psychology, a metaphysics, a theory of education,… More

On the Intention of Plato’s Cleitophon

- Davis, Michael, "On the Intention of Plato's Cleitophon," Metis: Revue d'anthropologie du monde greg ancien 13 (1998), 271-85.
Excerpt: Perhaps the one thing clear about the Cleitophon is that it belongs together with the Republic. Plato has for some reason invited us to pair what is by far his shortest dialogue with his longest dialogue save one. Each is about justice, but in four… More

Plato’s Republic: Critical Essays

- Kraut, Richard, ed., Plato's Republic: Critical Essays, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997.
Excerpt: Plato (427-347 B.C.) is the first Western philosopher who wrote systematically about the wide range of questions that make up the subject of philosophy, and it is in the Republic that he most fully expresses his conception of what philosophy is and… More

Plato’s Sophist

- Heidegger, Martin, Plato's Sophist, trans. Richard Rojcewicz and Andre Schuwer, Indiana University Press, 1997.
Excerpt: This book is a translation of Platon: Sophistes, which was published in 1992 as volume 19 of Heidegger’s Gesamtausgabe (Collected Works). The text is a reconstruction of the author’s lecture course delivered under the same title at the… More

Apology of Socrates

- Cropsey, Joseph, "Apology of Socrates," Plato's World: Man's Place in the Cosmos, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Excerpt: There are at least three principles on which the Dialogues of Plato, or some of them, can be arranged to form a general schema. The first to be employed was the ancient grouping of the dialogues in the famous tetralogies according to their perceived… More

The Problem of Socrates

- Strauss, Leo, "The Problem of Socrates," Interpretation 22, no. 2 (Spring 1995).  Talk given on April 17, 1970, at St. John's College, Annapolis.
Excerpt: [I was told that the local paper has announced that I lecture tonight on “The problems of Socrates.” This was an engaging printing error; for there is more than one problem of Socrates, in the first place, the problem with which Socrates… More

Theaetetus

- Cropsey, Joseph, "Theaetetus," Plato's World: Man's Place in the Cosmos, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Excerpt: The dialogue Theaetetus reports a conversation between Socrates and Theaetetus that occurred when the latter was perhaps fifteen years old. The conversation took place in the weeks or months preceding the death of Socrates, as the end of the… More

Sophist

- Cropsey, Joseph, "Sophist," Plato's World: Man's Place in the Cosmos, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995, 69-110.
Excerpt: The transition to the Sophist is made complex by the complexity of what precedes it, for this dialogue is preceded in one way by Theaetetus and in another by Euthyphro. As preceded by Theaetetus, the transition is from the atmosphere of… More

Statesman

- Cropsey, Joseph, "Statesman," Plato's World: Man's Place in the Cosmos, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995, 111-44.
Excerpt: The Stranger begins his colloquy with Young Socrates by proposing to seek out the statesman and to do so by identifying the statesman’s peculiar “science” or knowledge (episteme). If one knows what the statesman singularly knows,… More

Plato’s Statesman by Stanley Rosen

- Rosen, Stanley, Plato's Statesman: Web of Politics, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
Excerpt: The Statesman, like Plato’s earlier Sophist, features a Stranger who tries to refute Socrates. Much of his conversation is devoted to a minute analysis of the art of weaving, selected by the Stranger as a paradigm of the royal art of… More

Protagoras

- Cropsey, Joseph, "Protagoras," Plato's World: Man's Place in the Cosmos, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995, 3-26.
Excerpt: Given the dialectical character of the Platonic writings individually, it is not surprising that the Platonic corpus as a whole consists as largely as it does of engagements with one or another alternative to the understandings of Plato/Socrates. It… More

Phaedo

- Cropsey, Joseph, "Phaedo," Plato's World: Man's Place in the Cosmos, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Excerpt: Phaedo, so important by reason of its substance and occasion, receives its name from a historical figure about whom little can now be said to be known. Litle enough was remembered of him in later antiquity when Diogenes Laertius wrote his paragraph… More

The Death of Socrates and the Life of Philosophy

- Ahrensdorf, Peter J., The Death of Socrates and the Life of Philosophy, New York: State University of New York, 1995.
Excerpt: While all of Plato’s dialogues celebrate the philosophic life as a whole and the life of Socrates in particular, none does so more dramatically or more movingly than the Phaedo. There we see the philosopher face death with a nobility which all… More

Crito

- Cropsey, Joseph, "Crito," Plato's World: Man's Place in the Cosmos, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Excerpt: Crito illuminates a theme that is perhaps best known in the Aristotelean formulation that sets side by side the human being as such and the human being as denizen of a civil society—man and citizen. Though he may claim that man is by nature a… More

Euthyphro

- Cropsey, Joseph, "Euthyphro," Plato's World: Man's Place in the Cosmos, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995.  
Excerpt: There are at least three principles on which the Dialogues of Plato, or some of them, can be arranged to form a general schema. The first to be employed was the ancient grouping of the dialogues in the famous tetralogies according to their perceived… More

On Plato’s Political Philosophy

- Bruell, Christopher, "On Plato's Political Philosophy," The Review of Politics 56, no. 2 (Spring 1994), 261-82.
Abstract: This article consists chiefly in an examination of the Republic, but that examination attempts to determine the place of the Republic in relation to Plato’s other works (especially the Laws and the Statesman) as well as their place in… More

On Plato’s Symposium

- Benardete, Seth, "On Plato's Symposium," Plato's Symposium, trans. Seth Benardete, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Excerpt: Some Platonic dialogues are bound closely to the life and times of Socrates, and some are set at a particular time of day. The Phaedo and Symposium satisfy both criteria; they are also non-Socratically reported dialogues, and both contain… More

The Ladder of Love

- Bloom, Allan, "The Ladder of Love," Plato's Symposium, trans. Seth Benardete, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Excerpt: All of this amounts to nothing more than an abstraction, the improbable assertion that thinking is erotic, unless there is some real connection between the activity of thinking and the phenomena everyone recognizes as erotic. This paradoxical… More

Socratic Rationalism and Political Philosophy: An Interpretation of Plato’s Phaedo

- 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… More

The Cambridge Companion to Plato

- The Cambridge Companion to Plato, ed. Richard Kraut, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
From the publisher: Plato stands as the fount of our philosophical tradition, being the first Western thinker to produce a body of writing that touches upon a wide range of topics still discussed by philosophers today. In a sense he invented philosophy as a… More

The Tragedy and Comedy of Life: Plato’s Philebus

- Benardete, Seth, The Tragedy and Comedy of Life: Plato's Philebus, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Excerpt: The criticism of poetry in the Philebus does not deny to poetry its truthfulness to life. It locates its falsity in poetry’s denial of the goodness of life. Poetry’s exposition of life does not redeem it; rather, it makes life worth… More

Plato’s Parmenides

- Meinwald, Constance C., Plato's Parmenides, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Excerpt: Plato’s Parmenides today finds itself in a strange position: it is clearly an important work, but its import remains remarkably unclear. The difficulty of analyzing this text is due, in part, to its complicated structure. Within three frames… More

Plato’s Penal Code: Tradition, Controversy, and Reform in Greek Penology

- Saunders, Trevor J., Plato's Penal Code: Tradition, Controversy, and Reform in Greek Penology, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
About the Book: This book assesses Plato’s penal code within the tradition of Greek penology. Saunders provides a detailed exposition of the emergence of the concept of publicly controlled, rationally calculated, and socially directed punishment in the… More

Legislation and Demiurgy: On the Relationship Between Plato’s Republic and Laws

- Laks, Andre, "Legislation and Demiurgy: On the Relationship Between Plato’s Republic and Laws," Classical Antiquity 9, no. 2 (Oct. 1990), 209-29.
Excerpt: Glenn Morrow, who did so much to illuminate the historical background of the Laws in his book Plato’s Cretan City, also had a sense, one quite unusual among commentators, of how the Laws really belonged to Plato’s philosophy and was… More

The Rational Enterprise: Logos in Plato’s Theaetetus

- Desjardins, Rosemary, The Rational Enterprise: Logos in Plato's Theaetetus, Albany, NY: SUNY, 1990.
Excerpt: “Any discourse ought to be constructed like a living creature, with its own body as it were; it must not lack either heard or feet; it must have a middle and extremities so composed as to suit each other and the whole work.” (Phaedr.… More

The Soul’s Silent Dialogue: A Non-Apporetic Reading of the Theaetetus

- Frede, Dorothea, "The Soul's Silent Dialogue: A Non-Apporetic Reading of the Theaetetus," The Cambridge Classical Journal 35 (December 1989), 20-49.
Excerpt: Our situation with respect to Plato is paradoxical. Here is a philosopher who emphatically insisted on truth and repudiated persuasion. And yet the community of Plato’s admirers finds itself in the predicament that persuasion (or plausibility)… More

The Whole as Setting for Man: On Plato’s Timaeus

- Cropsey, Joseph, "The Whole as Setting for Man: On Plato's Timaeus," Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy 17, no. 2 (Winter 1989-90), 165-92.
Excerpt: Plato’s Timaeus brings together Socrates and three of the four people who had requested, and received, on the preceding day, an account by him of his views on the polity. The review that Socrates gives “today” of the account that… More

Socrates’ Second Sailing: On Plato’s Republic

- Benardete, Seth, Socrates' Second Sailing: On Plato's Republic, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.
Excerpt: The title of this book alludes to the phrase Plato has Socrates use in his intellectual autobiography in the Phaedo. Socrates tells his story as a preface to his reply to Cebes’ counterargument to the proof Socrates has given about the… More

The Problem of Socrates: Five Lectures

- Strauss, Leo, "The Problem of Socrates: Five Lectures," The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism: An Introduction to the Thought of Leo Strauss, Thomas L. Pangle, ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. Published, complete and unedited, as Strauss, Leo, "The Origins of Political Science and the Problem of Socrates: Six Public Lectures," Interpretation 23, no. 2 (Winter 1996).
Excerpt: For according to Plato as well as to Aristotle, to the extent to which the human problem cannot be solved by political means it can be solved only by philosophy, by and through the philosophic way of life. Plato too presents men who are not good or… More

On Pleasure and the Human Good: Plato’s Philebus

- Cropsey, Joseph, "On Pleasure and the Human Good: Plato's Philebus," Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy 16, no. 2 (Winter 1988-89), 167-93.
Excerpt: Plato’s Philebus is said, under the encouragement of its subtitle, to be about pleasure; but how far it is from being simply about pleasure, or even primarily about pleasure, may be seen from the development of the argument toward and then… More

Listening to the Cicadas: A Study of Plato’s Phaedrus

- Ferrari, G. R. F., Listening to the Cicadas: A Study of Plato's Phaedrus, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Excerpt: This is a book about Plato’s Phaedrus, nothing more; but that is quite a lot. I shall dispense with a long preamble as to its contents. Rather, my way of orienting readers to Plato’s concerns in this dialogue, and to my own in writing… More

Plato

- Strauss, Leo, "Plato," History of Political Philosophy, 3rd edition, eds. Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Excerpt: Thirty-five dialogues and thirteen letters have come down to us as Platonic writings, not all of which are now regarded as genuine. Some scholars go so far as to doubt that any of the letters is genuine. In order not to encumber our presentation with… More

On the Minos

- Strauss, Leo, "On the Minos," The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, ed. Thomas L. Pangle, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, 67-79.
Excerpt: The Minos has come down to us as a Platonic work immediately preceding the Laws. The Laws begins where the Minos ends: the Minos ends with a praise of the laws of the Cretan king Minos, the son and pupil of Zeus, and the Laws begins with an… More

On the Cleitophon

- Orwin, Clifford, "On the Cleitophon," The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, ed. Thomas L. Pangle, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, 117-31.
Excerpt: The Cleitophon is by far the shortest of the dialogues ascribed to Plato. It is also the only one that features an unanswered blame of Socrates. These facts encouraged many critics of the last century to try to pronounce it spurious. None of the… More

An Interpretation of Plato’s Ion

- Bloom, Allan, "An Interpretation of Plato's Ion," The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, ed. Thomas L. Pangle, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, 371-96.
Excerpt: In Xenophon’s Banquet Antisthenes asks, “Do you know any tribe more stupid [or simple] than the rhapsodes?” This question, obviously rhetorical, leads the reader of the Ion to the further question, “Why in the world does… More

Introduction to the Greater Hippias

- Sweet, David R., "Introduction to the Greater Hippias," The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, ed. Thomas L. Pangle, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, 340-55.
Excerpt: Hippias of Elis was among the half dozen most influential Greek sophists, yet the surviving information about him comes principally from three Platonic dialogues, the Protagoras, the Greater Hippias, and the Lesser Hippias, and from one passage… More

Introduction to the Lesser Hippias

- Leake, James, "Introduction to the Lesser Hippias," The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, ed. Thomas L. Pangle, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, 300-06.
Excerpt: The major interlocutor of Socrates in this dialogue is Hippias, one of the most renowned sophists at the end of the fifth century. His fellows citizens at Elis, the small city in the northwestern Peloponese, chose him on numerous occasions to… More

Introduction to the Laches

- Nichols, James H., "Introduction to the Laches," The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, ed. Thomas L. Pangle, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, 269-80.
Excerpt: The questions concerning the Laches as a whole can hardly fail to strike the reader. Everyone knows that the Laches is about courage: why, then, is fully half of the dialogue devoted to other matters before Socrates clearly formulates the question… More

On the Theages

- Pangle, Thomas L., "On the Theages," The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, ed. Thomas L. Pangle, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, 147-74.
Excerpt: As the subtitle suggests and as is confirmed by even a cursory reading, the theme of the Theages is wisdom. This dialogue thus stands with the four other dialogues that treat thematically the cardinal virtues (Republic, Charmides, Laches,… More

On the Original Meaning of Political Philosophy: An Interpretation of Plato’s Lovers

- Bruell, Christopher, "On the Original Meaning of Political Philosophy: An Interpretation of Plato's Lovers," The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, ed. Thomas L. Pangle, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, 91-110.
Excerpt: The Lovers is one of only four dialogues narrated from the beginning to end by Socrates, the others being the Republic, Charmides, and Lysis. This fact may tell us something as to the place of these dialogues within the Platonic corpus. When he… More

The Political Philosopher in Democratic Society: The Socratic View

- Bloom, Allan, "The Political Philosopher in Democratic Society: The Socratic View," The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, ed. Thomas L. Pangle, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, 32-52.
Excerpt: In an age in which not only the alternatives of action but also those of thought have become peculiarly impoverished, it behooves us to search for the lost, profound possibilities of human life. We are in need of a comprehensive reflection on the… More

The Life of Philosophy and the Immortality of the Soul

- Bolotin, David, "The Life of Philosophy and the Immortality of the Soul: An Introduction to Plato's Phaedo," Ancient Philosophy, Vol. 7 (1987), 39-56.
Excerpt: It is widely acknowledged that Plato’s dialogues are artistic wholes, in which the ‘content’, or the speeches of the various characters, is inseparable from the ‘form’, or the dramatic context within which these speeches… More

On the Alcibiades I

- Forde, Steven, "On the Alcibiades I," The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues," ed. Thomas L. Pangle, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, 222-39.
Excerpt: The Alcibiades I was held in the greatest esteem in the Platonic school of antiquity. There was a tradition in fact that placed the dialogue at the head of all of Plato’s works, as the opening to the entire corpus; hence, perhaps, the… More

The Impossibility of Perfection: Socrates’ Criticism of Simonides’ Poem in the Protagoras

- Frede, Dorothea, "The Impossibility of Perfection: Socrates' Criticism of Simonides' Poem in the Protagoras," The Review of Metaphysics 39, no. 4 (June 1986), 729-53.
Excerpt: The claim that even Plato could not say everything at once nor could have thought or worked out everything at once is, of course, a platitude. It is generally acknowledged that there is development in Plato’s thought. But what the development… More

Plato’s Parmenides: The Conversion of the Soul

- Miller, Mitchell H., Plato's Parmenides: The Conversation of the Soul, University Park, PA: Princeton University Press, 1986.
Excerpt: Plato’s stage-setting in the Parmenides is remarkably intricate and detailed. This is especially so in the opening pages, in which Plato provides a series of intermediary personae to introduce the conversation proper between Socrates, Zeno,… More

Self-knowledge in Plato’s Phaedrus

- Griswold, Charles L. Jr., Self-Knowledge in Plato's Phaedrus, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.
Excerpt: The Phaedrus presents the appearance of a tapestry that has come partially unraveled into a tangled skein of themes and images. The warp and woof are Socrates and Phaedrus, a pair so ill matched that their relationship strikes us as comic. Their… More

Rumplestilskin’s Pleasures: True and False Pleasures in Plato’s Philebus

- Frede, Dorothea, "Rumplestilskin’s Pleasures: True and False Pleasures in Plato's Philebus," Phronesis 30, no. 2 (1985), 151-80.
Excerpt: Everyone who is moderately familiar with Plato’s dialogues will have the impression that pleasure according to Plato is a mixed blessing; often enough he refuses to regard it as a good – let alone the good – for mankind. It is easy to see… More

Science, Faith, and Politics

- Weinberger, Jerry, "Preface," Science, Faith, and Politics: Francis Bacon and the Utopian Roots of the Modern Age: A Commentary on Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985.

The Being of the Beautiful

- Benardete, Seth, The Being of the Beautiful: Plato's Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984, xi-xlix.
Excerpt: A bibliography of Platonic studies for the years 1958-75 lists 3,326 items; of these 102 are indexed as dealing with the Theaetetus, 188 with the Sophist, and 21 with the Statesman. Since the difficulties of the Statesman, as to its plan and… More

On the Euthydemus

- Strauss, Leo, "On the Euthydemus," Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1983, 67-88.
Excerpt: From the Crito we are led to the Euthydemus by the consideration that the Euthydemus contains the only other conversation between Socrates and Kriton. The two dialogues stand indeed as opposite poles. The Euthydemus is the most bantering, not to… More

On Plato’s Apology of Socrates and Crito by Leo Strauss

- Strauss, Leo, "On Plato's Apology of Socrates and Crito," Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Excerpt: The Apology of Socrates is the only Platonic work with Socrates in the title. Yet Socrates is visibly or invisibly the chief character in all Platonic dialogues: all Platonic dialogues are “apologies” of or for Socrates. But the Apology… More

An Introduction to Plato’s Republic

- Annas, Julia, An Introduction to Plato's Republic, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Excerpt: The Republic is Plato’s best-known work, and there are ways in which it is too famous for its own good. It gives us systematic answers to a whole range of questions about morality, politics, knowledge, and metaphysics, and the book is written… More

Socrates’ Pre-Socratism: Some Remarks on the Structure of Plato’s Phaedo

- Davis, Michael, "Socrates' Pre-Socratism: Some Remarks on the Structure of Plato's Phaedo," Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 33, No. 3 (March 1980).
Excerpt: To Speak of Socrates’ pre-Socraticism is puzzling. It suggests that there was a time at which Socrates was not Socrates. That is not entirely misleading. There was something special about Socrates, special enough so that Nietzsche, for one,… More

Plato and Nietzsche on Death

- Davis, Michael, "Plato and Nietzsche on Death: An Introduction to Plato's Phaedo," Ancient Philosophy, Vol. 1 (1980), 69-80.
Excerpt: The title of this paper is something of a lie. It is a noble lie, but it is a lie. Plato and Nietzsche will not be equally treated here. Still, the title reflects one of the crucial problems of contemporary philosophy, and of contemporary life. For… More

Plato’s Dialogue on Friendship: An Interpretation of the Lysis, with a New Translation

- Bolotin, David, Plato's Dialogue on Friendship: An Interpretation of the Lysis with a New Translation, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979.
Excerpt: If we wish to find philosophic discussions of friendship, we are almost compelled to turn to the writings of classical antiquity. The question of friendship was an important one for ancient thinkers. Yet in modern times, philosophers have rarely… More

The Final Proof of the Immortality of the Soul in Plato’s Phaedo

- Frede, Dorothea, "The Final Proof of the Immortality of the Soul in Plato's Phaedo 102a – 107a," Phronesis, Vol. 23, No. 1 (1978), pp. 27-41.
Excerpt: Among the arguments presented by Socrates as proofs for the everlastingness of the human soul the last one has greatly puzzled philosophers because it seems that, in opposition to the earlier arguments, Plato considered this last argument conclusive.

Socratic Politics and Self-Knowledge: An Interpretation of Plato’s Charmides

- Bruell, Christopher, "Socratic Politics and Self-Knowledge: An Interpretation of Plato’s Charmides," Interpretation 6, no. 3 (October 1977), 141-203.
Excerpt: In Plato’s Charmides, Socrates has a discussion about moderation with two cousins, Charmides and Critias. The conversation shakes the conviction of Charmides, a youth of great beauty and of great promise, that he possess that virtue and… More

The Political Psychology of Religion in Plato’s Laws

- Pangle, Thomas L., "The Political Psychology of Religion in Plato’s Laws," The American Political Science Review 70, no. 4 (December 1976), 1059-77.
Excerpt: Why is it important that we turn our serious attention to Plato’s Laws? How will the study of this antique work help us to come to grips with the dilemma of modern democracy? We find ourselves citizens of rich and powerful regimes which… More

An Introduction to the Reading of Plato’s Laches

- Blitz, Mark, "An Introduction to the Reading of Plato's Laches," Interpretation 5, no. 2 (Winter 1975), 185-225.
Excerpt: Plato’s Laches is a discussion of courage, but the thematic discussion of courage does not begin until the dialogue is half over. It is named after the Athenian general Laches, one of the interlocutors, but why it is named after him and not… More

The Argument and the Action of Plato’s Laws

- Strauss, Leo, The Argument and the Action of Plato's Laws, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975.
Excerpt: In the traditional order of the Platonic dialogues the Laws is preceded by the Minos, the only Platonic dialogue in which Socrates raises the question What is law? It appears that not all laws are good or, at any rate equally good. The Cretan laws… More

On Plato’s Timaeus and Timaeus’ Science Fiction

- Benardete, Seth, "On Plato's Timaeus and Timaeus' Science Fiction," Interpretation 2, no. 1, (Summer 1971), 21-65.
Excerpt: (17a1-b4). Socrates counts out loud. He makes himself out to be somewhat ridiculous. He does not say, “There are three of you; there should be four.” Nor does he say, We are all here except so-and-so. Where is he Timaeus?” Socrates… More

The Republic of Plato

- Bloom, Allan, The Republic of Plato, New York: Basic Books, 1968, 1991.
Excerpt: The Republic is the true Apology of Socrates, for only in the Republic does he give an adequate treatment of the theme which was forced on him by Athens’ accusation against him. That theme is the relationship of the philosopher to the… More

A Commentary on Plato’s Meno

- Klein, Jacob, A Commentary on Plato's Meno, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965.
Excerpt: In the past, for long stretches of time, writing commentaries was a way of expounding the truth. It still may be that. But how about commentaries on Platonic dialogues? Must they not be based on a variety of preconceptions and predecisions, on a vast… More

On Plato’s Republic

- Strauss, Leo, "On Plato's Republic," The City and Man, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964, 50-138.
Excerpt: Generally speaking, we can know the thought of a man only through his speeches oral or written. We can know Aristotle’s political philosophy through his Politics. Plato’s Republic on the other hand, in contradistinction to… More

Plato’s Cretan City: A Historical Interpretation of the Laws

- Morrow, Glenn R., Plato's Cretan City: A Historical Interpretation of the Laws, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960.
About the Book: Plato’s Cretan City is a thorough investigation into the roots of Plato’s Laws and a compelling explication of his ideas on legislation and social institutions. A dialogue among three travelers, the Laws proposes a detailed… More

How Farabi Read Plato’s Laws

- Strauss, Leo, "How Farabi Read Plato's Laws," Mélanges Louis Massignon, Institut Francais de Damas, 1957, Vol. 3.  Reprinted in What Is Political Philosophy?
Excerpt: At first it seems as if Farabi meant to say that all insights which he ascribed to Plato were peculiar to Plato. What he actually says however is that Plato did not find the science which he desired among the sciences and arts which are known to the… More

Farabi’s Plato

- Strauss, Leo, "Farabi's Plato," Louis Ginzberg Jubilee Volume, American Academy for Jewish Research, 1945.  Reprinted, revised and abbreviated, in Persecution and the Art of Writing.
Excerpt: Farabi followed Plato not merely as regards the manner in which he presented the philosophic teaching in his most important books.  He held the view that Plato’s philosophy was the true philosophy.  To reconcile his Platonism with his… More

Plato and Parmenides

- Cornford, Francis MacDonald, Plato and Parmenides: Parmenides' Way of Truth and Plato's Parmenides, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1939; repr. Routledge, 2010.
Excerpt: Parmenides was likely written within the last two decades preceding Plato’s death in 347 BCE. Despite two millennia of documented commentary, scholars struggle to make sense of it. Almost every major discussion of the Parmenides in this… More

Plato: The Man and His Work

- A. E. Taylor, Plato: The Man and His Work, Dover Publications, 2011.  Originally published in 1926.
From the publisher: This outstanding work by a renowned Plato scholar presents the thought of the great Greek philosopher with historical accuracy and objective analysis. A brief introductory chapter about the philosopher’s life is followed by an… More