Browse our books below. You can also search for books.
ROSS, D., Plato's Theory of Ideas. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1971. Reprint from corrected sheets of the 1st ed. 251p. Original black cloth. Spine gilt titled. Spine a bit discoloured. Sir David Ross has once again put all students of the classics in his debt by a masterly book on Plato’s Theory of Ideas. A full-length treatment of this subject was badly needed and this book should at once become a standard work. Its ground plan is simple and straightforward. R. Begins with a discussion of the chronology of the Platonic dialogues. Then he traces the development of the Theory of Ideas from the earliest Socratic dialogues through the Phaedo, Republic and Parmenides to the dialogues of Plato’s later years. A chapter on Plato’s ‘Unwritten Doctrines’ follows. Then comes a detailed and authoritative account of the evidence of Aristotle and a discussion of the perplexing questions which surround the identification of ideas with numbers. In a final chapter the author reviews his material and draws his conclusions with firmness and clarity. (…) This is a book central for Platonic studies which will be read and quoted for years to come. As befits a distinguished Aristotelian, Sir David Ross writes soberly and sensibly, and this work supplies that thorough and comprehensive account of a difficult theme which has long been desired by those who seek to understand or expound the Platonic Theory of Ideas.’ (J.V. LUCE in Hermathena, 1952, pp.117-119). € 75.00 (Antiquarian)