Scrinium Classical Antiquity

SORABJI, R., Moral Conscience through the Ages. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014. 265p. Hard bound with dust wrps. 'Sorabji’s Moral Conscience through the Ages takes us from the earliest Greek tragedies to the life and writings of Mahatma Gandhi. Seldom has the notion of respect for conscience been shown to be capable of so many fascinating permutations. Seldom have so many great thinkers been shown wrestling throughout the ages with this topic. Their thoughts are brought alive for us by Sorabji with warm insight and with a vivid sense of the historical context of each. The book amounts to a rethinking of a central value in our own culture that remains as relevant today as it was over two millennia ago among the ancient Greeks and Romans.' (PETER BROWN, Princeton University). € 29.50 (New)

SPARIOSU, M.I., God of Many Names. Play, Poetry and Power in Hellenic Thought from Homer to Aristotle. Duke University Press, Durham/London, 1991. XIX,246p. Paperback. € 31.50 (Antiquarian)

SPEISER, A., Ein Parmenideskommentar. Studien zur platonischen Dialektik. Koehler, Stuttgart, 1959. 2nd enlarged ed. 111p. Original blue gilt titled cloth with dust wrps. Upper edge slightly foxed. Dust wrps slightly damaged to lower edge back. ‘The author deals only with the second part of the dialogue (137c ff.). A large part of the book consists of a close and accurate paraphrase of the argument, which frees it from its tiresome dialogue form. The argument is analysed into nine main positions and seventy-eight subsections. The division into subsections provides an accurate and useful guide to the dialogue. The division into nine positions, which treats 155e-157b, usually regarded as an appendix to the second position, as a separate position, is more questionable. Plato has no consistent formula to introduce each fresh position, and the language at 155e certainly suggests a major break in the argument (…); but the introduction of a ninth position breaks the symmetry of the conventional arrangement of the positions into two groups of four, and 160b and 166c seem on any ordinary interpretation to state definitely that the argument falls into two such fourfold groups. The author’s ninefold division must therefore I think be rejected. The point is of some importance because his interpretation of the dialogue rests largely on this division. He supposes that his nine positions fall into groups of one, four and four. The first position deals with ‘the one beyond being’, the new four with the word of existent reality, the last four with the world of appearance. I doubt also if it is legitimate to treat the second part of the dialogue in such complete isolation from the first. The commentary is often helpful, particularly when it cites mathematical analogies, but there are far more fallacies in the argument than those which the author notices, and the difficult question what we are to make of these fallacies is left untouched.’ (H.D.P. LEE on the first ed. in The Classical Review, 1937, pp.239-240). € 25.00 (Antiquarian)

STAUFFER, D., The Unity of Plato's 'Gorgias'. Rhetoric, Justice, and the Philosophic Life. Cambridge University Press, New York (...), 2006. VII,191p. Hard bound with dust wrps. 'Scores of articles and book chapters are devoted to Plato's Gorgias, but few monographs. Devin Stauffer provides the first book-length study of the dialogue in many years.1 Although the Gorgias has been widely read and interpreted, scholars rarely articulate coherently the unifying idea which ostensibly binds together this complicated dialogue. Stauffer promises that a close reading, attentive to the twisting and turning path of the dialogue, links its diverse themes and reveals its true unity. In both detail and depth, Stauffer engages the text, and grapples with its hydra of arguments, making his book an essential and thought-provoking companion to the serious study of this dialogue in any academic discipline. (...) Stauffer has written an admirable book. The Unity of the Gorgias unfolds the polyvalent arguments and action of the dialogue with deliberate attention to dramatic setting and a sustained examination of its interlocking themes. Stauffer's most insightful comments thus emerge by reflection on transitions and shifts in particular speeches, the character of interlocutors as revealed in their speech, and the motion of the dialogue from one part to the next. The reader of his book, like the serious reader of any Platonic dialogue, must be willing to accept the task of wondering about and questioning themes as they gradually arise in context. Where one disagrees with Stauffer's reading, his goodwill and knowledge prompt further conversation and lead back to the dialogue itself.' (DUSTIN A. GISH in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.05.09). € 57.50 (Antiquarian)

STEEL, C., (ed.), The Legacy of Aristotle's Political Thought. Essays in Honour of Prof.Dr. Gerard Verbeke. Paleis der Academiën, Brussel, 1999. 139p. Sewn. A.o.: G. VERBEKE: A 'New' Perspective in Political Philosophy (pp.17-49); C. STEEL: The Good Man and the Good Citizen (pp.49-75); T.J. SAUNDERS: Authority and the Individual in Plato and Aristotle (pp.75-101); R. BODÉÜS: L'attitude paradoxale d'Aristote envers la tyrannie (pp.121-137). € 29.50 (Antiquarian)

STERPIN, E.J., and E.J. CONROTTE, [Collection de Classiques Grecs comparés]. Platon: Euthyphron, [S. Justin]: Exhortation aux Grecs. Partie du maitre. Desclée de Brouwer, Brugge(...), 1902. 115p. Cloth. Library marks on cover and first pages. € 17.50 (Antiquarian)

STONE, I.F., The Trial of Socrates. Anchor Books (Doubleday), New York (...), 1989. XI,282p. Paperback. Pages a bit yellowed due to paper quality.‘The beauty of ‘The Trial of Socrates’ is not so much any new facts that Stone’s investigative reporting might have uncovered (…), but the beauty of the crystalline language and style with which he reconstructs the ‘missing case for the prosecution.’ ‘The Trial of Socrates’ is a fitting conclusion to I.F. Stone’s writing career because it is, in fact, a study of the origins of freedom of thought and speech and the ancient challenge to them. (…) Stone (…) has provided us with a very readable, very knowledgeable, very penetrating, and even fair assessment of a figure in Western intellectual history whom he got to undressand within the framework of Athenian democratic history, but also an Athens, who despite its democracy, itself was indicted by executing its most famous critic. Still, we shall never know all that we would like to know about the elusive figure of a Socrates whose words and deeds will always be shrouded by those who knew him and those who wanted to know him.’ (JOHN E. REXINE in Triceratops). € 7.00 (Antiquarian)

TAYLOR, A.E., Plato. The Man and his Work. Meridian Books, NewYork, 1957. Reprint 6th ed. XI,562p. Sewn. Back with reading trace. € 14.50 (Antiquarian)

TAYLOR, A.E., Plato. The Man and his Work. Methuen, Londen, 1966. 7th ed. 562p. Paperback. Spine bit yellowed and with light reading trace. Name on title page. € 14.50 (Antiquarian)

VAHLEN, Io., Opuscula Academica. Pars prior. Prooemia indicibus lectionum praemissa I-XXXIII ab a MDCCCLXXV ad A. MDCCCLXXXXI. Pars posterior. Prooemia indicibus lectionum praemissa XXXIV-LXIII ab A. MDCCCLXXXXII ad A. MDCCCCVI. Olms, Hildesheim, 1967. Photomechanical reprint ed.1907/1908. 2 vols. XI,511;IV,646p. Original gilt stamped grey blue cloth. Upper edge publisher's stained. Fore edge slightly foxed. € 45.00 (Antiquarian)