Plato Plato
Список книг автора Plato PlatoApology - The Original Classic Edition
Apology is Platos least philosophical and most unrepresentative work but arguably his most important and is among many readers favorites, including mine. However, the fact that it is widely anthologized – e.g., in The Trial and Death of Socrates – makes it hard to justify a standalone, but some may be taken by the translation. <p> The work purports to be Socrates self-defense at his trial. It is historically priceless if so, as it gives his last public statements and some background about his life and the lead up to the trial. Even if not, it is of immense worth as a passionate, sound defense of individualism and free speech; its timeless evocation of these all-important concepts is forever associated with Socrates and the main reason he has been immortalized. The work also piercingly examines the often vast law/conscience gap and is thus an early higher law document. Finally, it is a sort of mini-dialogue in itself touching on and in several ways tying up classic Socrates/Plato themes like the nature of piety and goodness, responsibility toward the gods and the state, interpersonal relations, and life vs. death issues. It sums up Socrates and perhaps Plato better than any other work. <p> The ever-important translation issue must also be kept in mind. It goes without saying that anyone who cares about intellectual issues, especially applied ones, must know Plato, as should anyone who wants to be even basically well-read. However, this is far easier said than done for most; he is so different from what now passes for literature, to say nothing of pop culture, that he is virtually inaccessible to general readers. Yet the importance of persevering cannot be overemphasized; the payoff is well worth the effort. As nearly always in such cases, reading him becomes far easier after the initial difficulty; no attentive reader will ever think Plato easy reading, but he is utterly absorbing once we get used to his style. He has a near-poetic beauty that all agree has never even been remotely approached in philosophy, and such mesmerizing prose is rare in any genre. His dialogues are an incredible form at once intellectually and aesthetically pleasing – an inspired combination that has perhaps never been bettered; many have appropriated it, but none have matched it. All this means that picking the right translation is probably more important with Plato than any other writer. For the average reader, the more recent, the better is generally true, but older translations like W. H. D. Rouses and Benjamin Jowetts are still very accessible. The important thing is to read Plato in some form, and those who happen on a translation that does not work for them should keep trying until their mind opens in a truly new way – and once done, it will never close again.
Symposium - The Original Classic Edition
Fascinating ancient treatise on the nature of Love: in many pieces of ancient Roman and Greek literature you will come away greatly surprised at how these 2000 to 3000-year old cultures were so similar to ours in many ways. Well, Platos dialogue The Symposium both re-affirms and counters these past impressions. <p> The Symposium investigates the nature of romantic Love. What is it? From where does it arise? What is the aim of Love? What does it accomplish? <p> On the one hand, this dialogue asks questions that people today still cant really answer. Modern readers should be able to relate very well to these aspects of the dialogue. It should be noted that most of the viewpoints and opinions presented through several speeches in the dialogue make some sort of sense, but only when Love is thought of as a sentient being that can influence a persons thoughts and actions. Most of us today have been schooled in science and dont perceive Love as a separate entity but rather as a mental condition springing from somewhere in the brain. But overall, the speeches are easy to relate to in the sense of scrutinizing the fundamental nature of Love. <p> However, where The Symposium evinces stark differences with modern culture is with respect to homo-eroticism. So many references are made to homosexuality (including one embarassingly revealing anecdote by Alcibiades about his lover Socrates) that if we consider Platos work to be representative of the time, then we have to believe that many, if not most, highly educated men in ancient Athens were essentially homosexuals whose relations with their wives were limited to providing for them and fathering children by them. The most convincing support for this is in Aristophanes and Alcibiades speeches. <p> The finale to Agathons eulogy on Love immediately struck me as remarkable and incredibly well worded, so much so that I had to read it again to admire the use of language. And then imagine my astonishment when a couple paragraphs later Socrates says about Agathons speech: The rest was not quite so amazing, but who could fail to be struck by the beauty of language and phrasing at the end? <p> A must read for fans of classics! Its short too, so a fast read.
The Republic - The Original Classic Edition
This is a high quality book of the original classic edition. <p> This is a freshly published edition of this culturally important work, which is now, at last, again available to you. <p> Enjoy this classic work. These few paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside: <p>
The argument of the Republic is the search after Justice, the nature of which is first hinted at by Cephalus, the just and blameless old man?then discussed on the basis of proverbial morality by Socrates and Polemarchus?then caricatured by Thrasymachus and partially explained by Socrates?reduced to an abstraction by Glaucon and Adeimantus, and having become invisible in the individual reappears at length in the ideal State which is constructed by Socrates.
<p>....Or a more general division into two parts may be adopted; the first (Books I – IV) containing the description of a State framed generally in accordance with Hellenic notions of religion and morality, while in the second (Books V – X) the Hellenic State is transformed into an ideal kingdom of philosophy, of which all other governments are the perversions.
<p>....Just as in the Jewish prophets the reign of Messiah, or the day of the Lord, or the suffering Servant or people of God, or the Sun of righteousness with healing in his wings only convey, to us at least, their great spiritual ideals, so through the Greek State Plato reveals to us his own thoughts about divine perfection, which is the idea of good?like the sun in the visible world;?about human perfection, which is justice?about education beginning in youth and continuing in later years?about poets and sophists and tyrants who are the false teachers and evil rulers of mankind?about the world which is the embodiment of them?about a kingdom which exists nowhere upon earth but is laid up in heaven to be the pattern and rule of human life.
<p>....In the second book, when Glaucon insists that justice and injustice shall be considered without regard to their consequences, Adeimantus remarks that they are regarded by mankind in general only for the sake of their consequences; and in a similar vein of reflection he urges at the beginning of the fourth book that Socrates fails in making his citizens happy, and is answered that happiness is not the first but the second thing, not the direct aim but the indirect consequence of the good government of a State.
<p>....The allusion to Theages bridle, and to the internal oracle, or demonic sign, of Socrates, which here, as always in Plato, is only prohibitory; the remark that the salvation of any remnant of good in the present evil state of the world is due to God only; the reference to a future state of existence, which is unknown to Glaucon in the tenth book, and in which the discussions of Socrates and his disciples would be resumed; the surprise in the answers; the fanciful irony of Socrates, where he pretends that he can only describe the strange position of the philosopher in a figure of speech; the original observation that the Sophists, after all, are only the representatives and not the leaders of public opinion; the picture of the philosopher standing aside in the shower of sleet under a wall; the figure of the great beast followed by the expression of good-will towards the common people who would not have rejected the philosopher if they had known him; the right noble thought that the highest truths demand the greatest exactness; the hesitation of Socrates in returning once more to his well-worn theme of the idea of good; the ludicrous earnestness of Glaucon; the comparison of philosophy to a deserted maiden who marries beneath her?are some of the most interesting characteristics of the sixth book.