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The Symposium is a complex piece which is perhaps as widely read as any of Plato's works apart from the Republic. However the existing standard commentaries in English do not offer much by way of help to any reader except the classicist who knows Greek; and they also tend to be light on the dialogue as a work of philosophy. This new edition aims to fill both gaps. As well as providing a new and accurate translation facing the Greek text, it includes a substantial commentary, keyed mainly to the translation, which takes into account the needs of those without (or with little) Greek. It also treats the Symposium not just as a piece of literature that includes some philosophy, but as the product of a serious philosopher who is simultaneously a writer of the first order. Among the particular concerns of the commentary is to elucidate the underlying structure and argument of the dialogue. The outcome is not a synthesis of previous scholarship (collected in a sizeable, but selective, bibliography, but what is in many respects a fresh reading of a central and influential Platonic text. Greek text with facing-page translation, introduction and notes.
Until now no English translation existed of the Statesman (one of Plato's central works on politics, and on much else besides) which was both accurate and usable: nor was there a modern commentary which would help the reader through the argument, which was, in some parts, likely to be inaccessible without a guide. This new edition fills both gaps, being aimed especially, like other volumes in the Aris &Phillips series of texts, at students and other readers with little or no knowledge of the original language. This dialogue is of interest to philosophers and students of political theory as well as to classicists. Greek text with facing translation, notes and introduction.
The dating of the Phaedrus has been hotly debated: sometimes it has been counted among Plato's earliest works; sometimes with the dialogues of the 'middle' period (Phaedo, Symposium, Republic); sometimes with the late works (e.g. Sophist, Statesman). The safest and easiest hypothesis is that it stands somewhere between the latter two groups, in that it displays themes and preoccupations in common with both. Love, knowledge and the Forms, the nature and fate of the immortal soul: these are subjects familiar from the constructive middle dialogues; on the other hand, the discussion which frames Socrates' treatment of them, about the relationship between rhetoric and philosophy, about the value of writing, and about methodology, can in many respects plausibly be linked with the approach of the later and more critical dialogues. In modern times the Phaedrus has been relatively neglected; yet the rich mixture of its themes, and the consequent variations of style and tempo, make it one of the most rewarding parts of the Platonic corpus. This same variety is also the source of one of the major problems affecting our understanding of the work; is it a real unity? If so, what are the threads which hold the parts together? Greek text with facing-page translation, commentary and notes.
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