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Approaching Plato

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APPROACHING PLATO A Guide to the Early and Middle Dialogues Welcome to Approaching Plato,1 an online text designed to provide aids to the study of Plato’s early and middle dialogues. Here you will find material covering 15 of Plato’s works. For each of the dialogues there is a list and brief description of the main characters, outlines (both a short and a longer, more detailed version), and an interpretive essay. Other supplementary material is included as well, such as an imagined letter from Xanthippe to her mother reflecting on the actions of Socrates and his friends during the days leading up to the philosopher’s execution; and an account of the various ways Socrates characterizes his relation to the oracle of Apollo in the Apology. The longer outlines are supplemented with Greek text so that those who know the language can see for themselves the original words and phrases behind our translations.2 We have designed the material included on this site to be of use to students and professors of every level. The outlines are useful in a number of ways. Those who read a dialogue for the first time (or for the first few times) often find it difficult to follow the course of Plato’s arguments, which can be dense, allusive, concealed, and often long and interwoven with other material. The outlines assist comprehension by highlighting the dialogues’ main themes, their order of presentation, and their interconnections. The section-divisions within each outline indicate which parts of a dialogue must be read as one—read, that is, in one sitting—and thus where one may take a break from reading without breaking the thread of an argument. Students and professors alike can also use the outlines as brief reminders of the main themes and arguments of dialogues with which they are already well acquainted. As noted above, we have designed the outlines in such a way that those who can read Greek and who wish to see certain words and phrase in the original language can do so. There are many ways to read Plato. The essays on this site are interpretive, not exhaustive. They have been written with advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and professors in mind. They are not summaries of the dialogues or introductions to the scholarly consensus about their meaning or import. Rather, they are occasionally idiosyncratic and, we hope, always challenging and provocative reflections on Plato’s work. The essays provide historical, biographical, and philosophical information that situate the dialogues in a broader context and thus render them more accessible. They also stand as examples of how an intelligent and curious mind engages with Plato’s work. Philosophical novices can learn from both of these features. But we also believe that even the most 1 All the material on this site © 2009 by Mark Anderson and Ginger Osborn. 2 The translations throughout are the authors’ own. mature readers of the Platonic texts will appreciate the essays, whether they learn from them, object to them, enjoy them, or are exasperated by them. This site is no substitute for the direct and careful reading of Plato’s texts. It is not meant to be; no project of this sort can be. If you have found this site while seeking a short-cut to a personal engagement with the dialogues, you have come to the wrong place. You will find nothing here to assist you—unless by assistance you understand a correction of the misguided desire to avoid the serious and rewarding work of reading and struggling with the primary texts. If you are or have been engaged in this struggle and are seeking an enthusiastic ally, then make whatever use of this site you can. Entries on the Contents page link to corresponding outlines and essays; major divisions in the short outlines link to corresponding divisions in the detailed outlines, and vice versa. The essay on Happiness and Eudaimonia addresses some important terminological and philosophical matters. For a more thorough account of the substance and intentions of this site, please see the Introduction. If you have any questions or comments regarding this site, please contact us. (Also, please do take a moment to let us know your level—undergraduate, graduate student, professor, etc—and in what way you found the site helpful.) CONTENTS Introduction Happiness and Eudaimonia Protagoras Euthydemus Short outline Short outline Detailed outline Detailed outline Interpretive essay Interpretive essay Charmides Gorgias Short outline Short outline Detailed outline Detailed outline Interpretive essay Interpretive essay Laches Meno Short outline Short outline Detailed outline Detailed outline Interpretive essay Interpretive essay Lesser Hippias Euthyphro Short outline Short outline Detailed outline Detailed outline Interpretive essay Interpretive essay Phaedrus Apology Short outline Short outline Detailed outline Detailed outline Interpretive essay Socrates and the Oracle Interpretive essay Symposium Short outline Crito Detailed outline Short outline Interpretive essay Detailed outline Interpretive essay Ion Short outline Phaedo Detailed outline Short outline Interpretive essay Detailed outline Interpretive essay Lysis Xanthippe’s letter Short outline Detailed outline Republic short outline Interpretive essay Dialogorum Personae INTRODUCTION Plato’s dialogues operate on many different levels simultaneously. The two most fundamental levels are the dialectical and the dramatic. Every Platonic dialogue comprises long and often complex arguments embedded in the dramatic form of a philosophical debate or conversation. Many of the characters who appear in the dialogues are known from the historical record, and in most instances we can establish the year and location of the conversation. Plato evidently took great care to outfit the dialogues with dramatic features that associate them with actual events in Athenian history, and the arguments occur against and supported by that background. When reading a Platonic dialogue we must try always to attend to both of these elements. This site is designed to help the reader do just that. Each of the fifteen sections corresponds to one of the early or middle dialogues;3 and each one covers both the dialectical and the dramatic elements. An outline explicitly displays a dialogue’s main themes, principal divisions, and salient arguments; an interpretive essay situates the work in the relevant cultural and/or philosophical surroundings. Taken together, the outlines and essays introduce a reader to the two principal levels of each dialogue. 3 These fifteen account for all but two of those dialogues generally classified as either early or middle. We have chosen not to include the Republic, for which a number of excellent introductions are available. We have, however, included a short-form outline of the Republic. This will provide a basic level of assistance with the dialogue, at least enough to indicate its main themes and their interrelations and divisions. We hope the interested reader will follow the example of the dialogues that do receive full coverage and produce for the Republic, either as a whole or in part, his or her own long-form outline and interpretive essay. We have elected to omit the Menexenus as well, which omission we justify by noting its specialized appeal and the paucity of overtly philosophical substance. The Theaetetus and the Parmenides are variously classified as late-middle or early-late. Whatever one thinks about this matter, the fact is that these are difficult texts that require a longer and more detailed treatment that this site is meant to provide. The Hippias Major and Alcibiades I are not generally accepted as authentic. Each of them has many able defenders, and indeed one of the authors of this site is inclined to accept them both. Nevertheless, we must draw the line somewhere, and this is where we have drawn it. 1 In the remainder of this introduction we shall explain these points in greater detail. In so doing we intend not only to familiarize the reader with the nature of this site, but also to provide suggestions and warnings to keep in mind when reading Plato’s dialogues. What follows, then, is as much an introduction to the reading of Plato as to the content of this site. Socrates’ conversational style is idiosyncratic; one might call it downright peculiar. Notoriously, the thrust of his questions or assertions is often obscure, especially at the beginning of an argument. He frequently elicits his interlocutor’s opinion on a topic that seems innocuous, silly, or utterly irrelevant to the immediate context. As perplexing as this can be in itself, even more confounding is his tendency to later recall and employ the statement as a premise of an argument against that same man’s position. This practice can affect the reader in the same way it affects Socrates’ interlocutor: neither initially understands what motivates Socrates’ words. As a result, when he later reveals his conclusions we are surprised and unsure how they follow from what has preceded. This can be frustrating. And, indeed, Socrates’ dialectical partners often express exasperation and incomprehension at the progression of their conversation. The confusion is occasionally so pronounced that Socrates must clarify the matter by rehearsing the course of the argument—he must explain, point by point, how some specific set of agreements generated a particular conclusion. An example of this procedure is Protagoras 332a-333b, where Socrates develops an argument against the sophist’s assertion that the virtues are distinct by asking initially whether there is such a thing as folly and whether it is the opposite of wisdom. The questions seem trivially obvious and benign, as do some of the other questions Socrates asks in this exchange. Yet at the end Socrates “sums up” Protagoras’ agreements and concludes that at least two of the virtues, temperance and wisdom, are the same.
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