This anthology brings together six works associated with Plato’s account of Socrates and his wider philosophy: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium and the Allegory of the Cave from the Republic. The first four form a loose sequence around Socrates’ prosecution, defence, imprisonment and death, moving from the meaning of piety to the claims of law, moral consistency and the immortality of the soul.
Symposium broadens the collection through a series of speeches on love delivered at an Athenian drinking party, while the Allegory of the Cave presents Plato’s famous image of human beings mistaking shadows for reality. Read together, the texts move from Socratic questioning in specific ethical disputes towards Plato’s larger concerns with knowledge, education, desire and the philosophical life. The volume provides a compact introduction to several of the dialogues and images that have most strongly shaped later readings of Plato.
Xenophon
Plutarch
Adrian Goldsworthy
12 books
Arrian