To mark Eva Brann's fiftieth year on the faculty of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, twenty-three of her colleagues, friends, and former students have contributed essays, poems, and artwork to "The Envisioned Life." They celebrate Brann's "passion for learning and her deep love of books, her breadth of knowledge and interests, her boundless energy, her mastery of the spoken and of the written word, her virtues of leadership, and her bright and generous spirit."

Paul Dry Books has published three books by Eva Brann: "Homeric Moments," "The Music of the Republic," and "Open Secrets / Inward Prospects."

Plato's "Sophist" takes the form of a conversation between four characters - Socrates, the great philosopher who is shortly to be tried for impiety and corruption, Theaetetus, a brilliant young mathematician, Theaetetus' elderly teacher Theodorus, and a stranger introduced as "a very philosophical man". The conversation, often considered one of the greatest of all Platonic dialogues, concerns "the purveyor of ignorance" - the sophist. In the Greece of Socrates' time there was a group of travelling professors who gave themselves the honorary title of "sophists", or "wisdom-pliers". Their principle activity was to sell their expertise, particularly of rhetorical techniques and of philosophical opinions. This trading of philosophical insight by those believing themselves to be universal experts is politely but devastatingly undermined by Socrates and his interlocutors, in this, one of the most important of Plato's extant philosophical texts.

Peter Kalkavage's "The Logic of Desire: An Introduction to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit" guides the reader through Hegel's great work. Given the book's legendary difficulty, one may well ask, "Why even try to read the "Phenomenology"?" In his preface, Kalkavage explains why he thinks a reader should try.

"There is much to commend the study of Hegel: his attentiveness to the deepest, most fundamental questions of philosophy, his uncompromising pursuit of truth, his amazing gift for characterization and critique, his appreciation for the grand sweep of things and the large view, his profound admiration for all that is heroic, especially for the ancient Greeks, those heroes of thought in whom the philosophic spirit first dawned, his penetrating gaze into modernity in all its forms, the enormous breadth of his interests, and the sheer audacity of his claim to have captured absolute knowing in the form of a thoroughly rational account."

No genuine philosophic education can omit a serious encounter with this giant of the modern age, the giant who absorbed all the worlds of spiritual vitality that came before him and tried to organize them into a coherent whole.

Anyone who is interested in Hegel will want to own this book.

Peter Kalkavage is a member of the senior faculty at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, where he has taught for thirty years. He is the author of numerous articles on philosophy. He translated Plato's "Timaeus" and co-translated Plato's "Phaedo" and "Sophist."

A first rate translation at a reasonable price. --Michael Rohr, Rutgers University

Translation in English, with an introduction and glossary of key terms. Socrates on death, dying, and the soul. The glossary of key terms is a unique addition to Platonic literature by which concepts central to each dialogue are discussed and cross-referenced as to their occurrences throughout the work. In such a way students are encouraged to see beyond the words into concepts. Modern Students can now appreciate the wisdom of the world's greatest thinkers. Through clear, faithful translations, renowned scholars have made classical philosophical texts accessible and inspirational.

First published in Plato: Complete Works , Donald J. Zeyl's masterful translation of Timaeus is presented along with his 75 page introductory essay, which discusses points of contemporary interest in the Timaeus , deals at length with long-standing and current issues of interpretation, and provides a consecutive commentary on the work as a whole. Includes an analytic table of contents and a select bibliography.

First published in Plato: Complete Works , Donald J. Zeyl's masterful translation of Timaeus is presented along with his 75 page introductory essay, which discusses points of contemporary interest in the Timaeus , deals at length with long-standing and current issues of interpretation, and provides a consecutive commentary on the work as a whole. Includes an analytic table of contents and a select bibliography.