TIMAEUS   by Plato   Translated by Benjamin Jowett Contents INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS. Section 1. Section 2. Section 3. Section 4. Section 5. Section 6. Section 7. Section 8. TIMAEUS INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS. Of all the writings of Plato the Timaeus is the most obscure and repulsive to the modern reader, and has nevertheless had […]

SYMPOSIUM   By Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett Contents INTRODUCTION. SYMPOSIUM INTRODUCTION. Of all the works of Plato the Symposium is the most perfect in form, and may be truly thought to contain more than any commentator has ever dreamed of; or, as Goethe said of one of his own writings, more than the author […]

  STATESMAN   By Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett Contents INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS. STATESMAN INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS. In the Phaedrus, the Republic, the Philebus, the Parmenides, and the Sophist, we may observe the tendency of Plato to combine two or more subjects or different aspects of the same subject in a single dialogue. In the […]

SOPHIST   By Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett Contents INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS. SOPHIST INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS. The dramatic power of the dialogues of Plato appears to diminish as the metaphysical interest of them increases (compare Introd. to the Philebus). There are no descriptions of time, place or persons, in the Sophist and Statesman, but we […]

PROTAGORAS   By Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett Contents INTRODUCTION. PROTAGORAS INTRODUCTION. The Protagoras, like several of the Dialogues of Plato, is put into the mouth of Socrates, who describes a conversation which had taken place between himself and the great Sophist at the house of Callias—’the man who had spent more upon the Sophists […]

PHILEBUS   By Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett Contents INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS. PHILEBUS INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS. The Philebus appears to be one of the later writings of Plato, in which the style has begun to alter, and the dramatic and poetical element has become subordinate to the speculative and philosophical. In the development of abstract […]

PHAEDRUS By Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett ——————————————————————————– Contents INTRODUCTION. PHAEDRUS ——————————————————————————– INTRODUCTION. The Phaedrus is closely connected with the Symposium, and may be regarded either as introducing or following it. The two Dialogues together contain the whole philosophy of Plato on the nature of love, which in the Republic and in the later writings […]

PHAEDO   By Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett Contents INTRODUCTION. PHAEDO INTRODUCTION. After an interval of some months or years, and at Phlius, a town of Peloponnesus, the tale of the last hours of Socrates is narrated to Echecrates and other Phliasians by Phaedo the ‘beloved disciple.’ The Dialogue necessarily takes the form of a […]

PARMENIDES   By Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett Contents INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS. PARMENIDES INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS. The awe with which Plato regarded the character of ‘the great’ Parmenides has extended to the dialogue which he calls by his name. None of the writings of Plato have been more copiously illustrated, both in ancient and modern […]

  MENO   by Plato   Translated by Benjamin Jowett Contents INTRODUCTION. ON THE IDEAS OF PLATO. MENO INTRODUCTION. This Dialogue begins abruptly with a question of Meno, who asks, ‘whether virtue can be taught.’ Socrates replies that he does not as yet know what virtue is, and has never known anyone who did. ‘Then […]