You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Platoʹs dialogues have not only provided the necessary dosage of sunlight required to help cultivate the various subfields of the discipline but they have also given neophytes their first opportunity to study philosophy. Typically, upon commencing their post-secondary career in the academy, the average student will likely not have been exposed to any philosophical ideas, doctrines or concepts, let alone the primary works contained in the Corpus Platonicum. However, after reading a Platonic dialogue for the first time, the archetypal student seems to be struck by its suspicious simplicity. Gerald Press reports that it is within this perceived approachability that novice readers experience the most confusion: "An overall cause of reader perplexity about Plato is the contrast between what appears on the surface and what seems to exist, but obscurely, beneath the surface." (1) It is from this observation that Press begins his discussion on the causes of confusion in the Platonic dialogues. -- Review from http://www.c-scp.org (April 10, 2012).
It is widely agreed that Plato laid the foundations for the whole history of western thought and, well over 2000 years later, his work is still studied by every student of philosophy. Yet his thought and writings continue to evoke perplexity in readers; and perplexity (aporia) is itself a characteristic of many of his writings, a recurrent motif of his thought, and apparently an important stage one must pass through along the path to wisdom that Plato presents. Plato: A Guide for the Perplexed is a clear and thorough account of Plato's philosophy, his major works and ideas, providing an ideal guide to the important and complex thought of this key philosopher. The book offers a detailed review of all the major dialogues and explores the particular perplexities of the dialogue form. Geared towards the specific requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of Plato's thought, the book also provides a cogent and reliable survey of the whole history of Platonic interpretation and his far-reaching influence. This is the ideal companion to the study of this most influential and challenging of philosophers.
The call to teach means different things to different people. This collection contends, however, that, at the very least, faithful work in the teaching vocation involves excellence, commitment, and community. Representing diverse disciplines and institutional perspectives from a Christian research university, the contributors present reflections based on personal experience, empirical data, and theoretical models. This wide-ranging collection offers insight, encouragement, and a challenge to teachers in all areas of Christian higher education. Building upon the legacy of thoughtful teaching at Baylor University while looking toward the future of higher education, this collection is framed for Christians who teach in higher education but who are also committed to research and graduate training.
The "theory of forms" usually attributed to Plato is one of the most famous of philosophical theories, yet it has engendered such controversy in the literature on Plato that scholars even debate whether or not such a theory exists in his texts. Plato's Forms: Varieties of Interpretation is an ambitious work that brings together, in a single volume, widely divergent approaches to the topic of the forms in Plato's dialogues. With contributions rooted in both Anglo-American and Continental philosophy, the book illustrates the contentious role the forms have played in Platonic scholarship and suggests new approaches to a central problem of Plato studies.
In Plato's Socrates on Socrates: Socratic Self-Disclosure and the Public Practice of Philosophy, Anne-Marie Schultz analyzes the philosophical and political implications of Plato’s presentation of Socrates’ self-disclosive speech in four dialogues: Theaetetus, Symposium, Apology, and Phaedo. Schultz argues that these moments of Socratic self-disclosure show that Plato’s presentation of “Socrates the narrator” is much more pervasive than the secondary literature typically acknowledges. Despite the pervasive appearance of a Socrates who describes his own experience throughout the dialogues, Socratic autobiographical self-disclosure has received surprisingly little scholarly attention...
This book explores Socrates’ role as narrator of the Lysis, Charmides, Protagoras, Euthydemus, and Republic. New insights about each dialogue emerge through careful attention to Socrates’ narrative commentary. These insights include a re-reading of the aporetic ending of the Lysis, a view of philosophy as a means of overcoming tyranny in the Charmides, a reconsideration of virtue in the Protagoras, an enhanced understanding of Crito in the Euthydemus, and an uncovering of two models of virtue cultivation (self-mastery and harmony) in the Republic. This book presents Socrates’ narrative commentary as a mechanism that illustrates how the emotions shape Socrates’ self-understanding, his philosophical exchanges with others, and his view of the Good. As a result, this book challenges the dominant interpretation of Socrates as an intellectualist. It offers a holistic vision of the practice of philosophy that we would do well to embrace in our contemporary world.
In its examination of two of Plato's key works, Soul, World, and Idea: An Interpretation of Plato's Republic and Phaedo reveals the key role that that images and our capacity for image-making play in the relationship among soul, world, and idea. This bookbegins and ends with a reading of the Republic. Daniel Sherman turns midway to the Phaedo to further analyze the nature of the soul and its relation to the nature of the Ideas, then returns to apply the conclusions to the rest of the Republic. Sherman's focus is on the ontological and epistemological argument, including attention to the dramatic detail. He argues that the ontology of the Ideas in the Republic and the Phaedo is inseparable fr...
In this book, Mary Townsend proposes that, contrary to the current scholarship on Plato's Republic, Socrates does not in fact set out to prove the weakness of women. Rather, she argues that close attention to the drama of the Republic reveals that Plato dramatizes the reluctance of men to allow women into the public sphere and offers a deeply aporetic vision of women’s nature and political position—a vision full of concern not only for the human community, but for the desires of women themselves.