This is a modern, annotated translation of antiquity's only extant commentary on Plato's moral and political dialogue "Gorgias," in which the author defends ancient Greek philosophy and culture at a time when Christianity has almost replaced it. The first translation into any modern language of a central work in Platonic studies is accompanied by annotations which guide the reader in understanding the obscurities of the text, an introduction to the main issues raised by it, and a bibliography of the modern literature.
What is rhetoric? Is it the capacity to persuade? Or is it 'mere' rhetoric: the ability to get others to do what the speaker wants, regardless of what they want? Robert Wardy uses Gorgias at the centre of this book and the debate.
Presented in the popular Cambridge Texts format are three early Platonic dialogues in a new English translation by Tom Griffith that combines elegance, accuracy, freshness and fluency. Together they offer strikingly varied examples of Plato's critical encounter with the culture and politics of fifth and fourth century Athens. Nowhere does he engage more sharply and vigorously with the presuppositions of democracy. The Gorgias is a long and impassioned confrontation between Socrates and a succession of increasingly heated interlocutors about political rhetoric as an instrument of political power. The short Menexenus contains a pastiche of celebratory public oratory, illustrating its self-delusions. In the Protagoras, another important contribution to moral and political philosophy in its own right, Socrates takes on leading intellectuals (the 'sophists') of the later fifth century BC and their pretensions to knowledge. The dialogues are introduced and annotated by Malcolm Schofield, a leading authority on ancient Greek political philosophy.
This reading of Plato's Republic illuminates the power of myth in the shaping of history. It demonstrates the pervasiveness of myth in Plato's dialogues as well as within philosophy generally.
The significance of Plato’s Apology of Socrates is impossible to overestimate. An account of the famous trial of Socrates in 399 b.c., it appeals to historians, philosophers, political scientists, classicists, and literary critics. It is also essential reading for students of ancient Greek. This new commentary on Plato’s canonical work is designed to accommodate the needs of students in intermediate-level Greek classes, where they typically encounter the Apology for the first time. Paul Allen Miller and Charles Platter, two highly respected classicists and veteran instructors, present the Apology in its traditional thirty-three-chapter structure. They amplify the text with running commentary and glosses of unfamiliar words at the bottom of each page; brief chapter introductions to relevant philosophical, historical, and rhetorical issues; and a separate series of thought-provoking essays, one on each chapter. The essays can serve as bases for class discussions or as starting points for paper topics or general reflection. By integrating background material into the text at regular intervals rather than front-loading it in a lengthy initial overview or burying it in back-of-the-book endnotes, the authors offer students a rich encounter with the text. Their commentary incorporates the latest research on both the trial of Socrates and Plato’s version of it, and it engages major philosophical issues from a contemporary perspective. This book is not only a much-needed aid for students of Greek. It is also the basis of a complete course on the Apology.
Liberation and Authority provides original, comparative readings of Plato's Gorgias, the first book of the Republic, and Thucydides' History, arguing that they share similarities not only in the oft-noted "natural justice" of Callicles, Thrasymachus, and the Melian Dialogue, but also in a development that runs through the whole of each.
Arieti and Barrus' new edition of Plato's Protagoras provides a rigorously clear and accurate translation that communicates Plato's puns, metaphors, figures of speech, and other verbal techniques naturally, allowing scholars to feel the full scope of Plato's rhetoric. This new edition confronts and discusses the critical linguistic choices made in rendering difficult or obscure terms into an easily readable and understandable rendition. The commentary, introduction, glossary, and appendices elucidate the dialogue's many issues, especially those concerning rhetoric, education, and literary interpretation.
