Browse our books below. You can also search for books.
PLATO, Gorgias, Menexenus, Protagoras. Edited by M. Schofield. Translated by T. Griffith. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (...), 2010. XLIV,214p. Paperback. Series: Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. This text is perfect for political theory or intellectual history courses at any post-secondary level; nor would it be irrelevant for a philosophy class with supplementary discussion or reading. The translation is both fully pleasurable to read and true to Plato’s vernacular and dramatic intentions; the introduction is clear-eyed, smart, free of dogma, and non-didactic; and the format and apparatus provide every kind of help to be hoped for from a non-commentary. It is refreshingly oriented away from establishing or asserting Plato’s views about politics, justice, democracy, or some factitious version of “rhetoric.” The combination of three texts makes particular pedagogical sense, and for such a combination this edition wins out over alternative competing versions. Griffith translates the conversations vividly and brilliantly, in a colloquial but elegant English, full of sensitivity to Socrates’ modulation of rapport with his interlocutors. (...) The translations come with about 250 footnotes. Schofield, their author, explicates no principle of inclusion, but succeeds admirably at judging what will help a new reader make sense of the three conversations. He inserts one-sentence recapitulations, descriptions of interpretative cruxes, foreshadowing signposts, cross-references, historical background, dramatic explanation, and (infrequently) translation matters. (...) Schofield’s twenty-five page Introduction is a model of good judgment and restraint. It avoids 'treatment' of the Plato vs. Socrates question, simply talking of Plato as the writer and Socrates as the main character, and skips declaiming on 'How to read a dialogue', simply modeling the kinds of inquiry one might reasonably make into a Platonic text. (CHRITOPHER MOORE in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.11.12). € 26.50 (Antiquarian) ISBN: 9780521546003