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 after the other chief interlocutor, the Athenian general Nicias, is unclear. It is therefore necessary to attend carefully to the speeches and action of the dialogue from the very beginning in order to understand the significance of the long preparation for the arguments later conducted by Laches, Socrates, and Nicias, and it is necessary to attend to the whole dialogue in order to understand why the only word said by Plato in his own name, the title, is “Laches.”

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