Product Description

Outstanding translations by leading contemporary scholars -- many commissioned especially for this volume -- are presented here in the first single edition to include the entire surviving corpus of works attributed to Plato in antiquity. In his introductory essay, John Cooper explains the presentation of these works, discusses questions concerning the chronology of their composition, comments on the dialogue form in which Plato wrote, and offers guidance on approaching the reading and study of Plato's works. Also included are concise introductions to each translation, meticulous annotation designed to serve both scholar and general reader, and a comprehensive index. This handsome volume offers fine paper and a high-quality Smyth-sewn cloth binding in a sturdy elegant edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11906 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1808 pages

About the Author
Plato; Edited by John M Cooper

Customer Reviews

Excellent and unuseful, both at the same time
This is a gorgeous, excellent and complete edition of all works which are generally ascribed to Plato, or attributed to him in antiquity. But it's too big to read in the bath, which is the ideal place to read Greek philosophers.

It is the only complete works of its kind, and most of the translations were commissioned specially for it. It contains a mercifully short introduction, which is primarily an introduction to the volume as presented, not an introduction to Plato (more on that in a moment), brief introductions to each work, a fairly minimalist approach to footnotes - largely confined to textual or translation notes, references to ancient authors, and a very few essential explanations - and a good index. Interestingly, it contains a page telling you that the typeface is Palatino, which is a good choice, followed by fifteen blank pages. Again, mercifully, they have not printed 'notes' above these blank pages, since no-one should really be encouraged to write in this beautiful volume.

Alfred North Whitehead* suggested that the entire history of Western Philosophy was a set of footnotes to Plato. The publishers have wisely decided to follow Plato's pupil Aristotle's premise that only those things should be included which could not be left out, since if they had chosen to include all those things which could be usefully added, the book would run to many volumes and would lose most of its usefulness. Even so, at 1850 or so pages, this is about as big as any volume can usefully be if you intend to read it rather than just occasionally refer to it.

At the age I am now at, I am astonished that nobody made me read Plato at school. It seems to me that I would have done much better both at A-level and university if I had read it, and would not have airily referred to 'Platonism' or 'Platonic' as if it could all be summed up on one side of a sheet of A4, and everyone would know exactly what I was talking about. I suspect, though, that the sheer scale of his works was one of the reasons why nobody did.

And this is, as I have probably already alluded to, the problem with a complete works of this kind: it is too heavy to read in the bath, or on the train, and exudes the kind of presence that one would naturally ascribe to 'great philosophy'. This is regrettable: Plato's Socrates is one of the freshest, most direct and appealing characters in all of literature. He leaps straight off the page, jumping through two thousand four hundred years of history as if it were nothing. He is never dry, never dull, and never anything other than surprising.

Because of its size and price, this book is probably going to be bought by academics who already know what it contains, and libraries, and, worst of all, be a standard on the list of school or university prizes. This is a pity: I would genuinely recommend it to any enquiring mind, but especially to the under 20s, who are in many ways Socrates's intended audience. And herein lies the paradox. We come to this volume to find Plato, but we stay to spend time with Socrates.

--
*Thanks Sam C for the correction

This is the business!
This is the edition of Plato that you would have as required reading on an English medium Greek philosophy course. All the texts are translated and annotated by the relevant experts. In an ideal world you would have some kind of interlinear translation provided from the original Greek on the page facing the Greek translation, rather like the Interlinear New Testament as well as the translation into English prose. But then it would be incredibly expensive and very big I suppose.

Anyway if you like Plato, this is the one! Though it is very large. If you were interested in a particular text, e.g. The Republic, and were planning to read it on the train, you might be better off with buying the Penguin or Wordsworth el cheapo editions that you can carry around with you. This one is quite big.

Comprehensive Collection of Plato's works.
One of the most comprehensive collections available, this edition includes works of disputed origin, which should be of interest nonetheless to the proper philosopher, since they remain equally interesting, even if not so clearly attributable to Plato. This new translation also includes copious footnotes explaining much of the multifaceted complexities that are present in the ancient Greek language.