Tag: Beauty

Topics

Other Works

  • Charmides

    - Recommended Translations: "Charmides," trans. R. K. Sprague in Plato: Complete Works, ed. J. M. Cooper (Hackett, 1997). "Charmides," trans. Thomas and Grace West in Plato: Charmides. (Hackett, 1986).
    Excerpt: We arrived yesterday evening from the army at Potidaea, and I sought with delight, after an absence of some time, my wonted conversations. Accordingly I went into the wrestling-school of Taureas, opposite the Queen’s shrine, and there I came… More

  • Greater Hippias

    - Recommended translations:
    • "Greater Hippias," trans. D. R. Sweet in The Roots of Political Philosophy, ed. Thomas L. Pangle (Cornell, 1987).
    • "Greater Hippias," trans. P. Woodruff  in Plato: Complete Works, ed. J. M. Cooper (Hackett, 1997).
    Excerpt: Socrates Hippias, beautiful and wise, what a long time it is since you have put in at the port of Athens! Hippias I am too busy, Socrates. For whenever Elis needs to have any business transacted with any of the states, she always comes to me first… More

  • Ion

    - Recommended translation: "Ion," trans. A. Bloom in The Roots of Political Philosophy, ed. Thomas L. Pangle (Cornell, 1987).
    Excerpt: Socrates Welcome, Ion. Where have you come from now, to pay us this visit? From your home in Ephesus? Ion No, no, Socrates; from Epidaurus and the festival there of Asclepius. Socrates Do you mean to say that the Epidaurians honor the god with a… More

Commentary

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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