Dialogues
Plato
Description
Alfred North Whitehead once said, “the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”
It’s hard to overstate Plato’s influence on the West’s philosophical heritage and its civilization. As the first philosopher whose works survived to the present day, his writings and ideas are often characterized as the starting point of Western philosophy. Nor was his influence confined to the modern form of philosophy—Plato also affected political, religious, and spiritual thinkers, including early Christian theologians.
Plato’s works are written as dramatic dialogues. His focus is often on following the argument itself—the “dialectic”—rather than working toward a specific conclusion. His mentor, Socrates, is frequently the principal speaker, but scholars still debate whether Plato was expressing Socrates’ views or merely using Socrates as a mouthpiece for his own ideas.
In general, there are forty-five major works attributed to Plato, and all but one are dialogues. Modern scholars agree that roughly half of those were definitely written by him, some of those are definitely forgeries, and the rest they’re still unsure about. In this translation Jowett includes all but one of the works that modern scholars agree are authentic, along with an appendix of selected spurious dialogues. Over time, opinion on which works attributed to Plato were definitely written by him has changed; the only work that modern scholars believe is authentic that Jowett doesn’t include in this collection is “Hippias Major.”
Read free
This ebook is thought to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. It may still be under copyright in other countries. If you’re not located in the United States, you must check your local laws to verify that this ebook is free of copyright restrictions in the country you’re located in before accessing, downloading, or using it.
Download for ereaders
-
Compatible epub — All devices and apps except Kindles and Kobos.
-
azw3 — Kindle devices and apps. Also download the Kindle cover thumbnail to see the cover in your Kindle’s library. Despite what you’ve been told, Kindle does not natively support epub. You may also be interested in our Kindle FAQ.
-
kepub — Kobo devices and apps. You may also be interested in our Kobo FAQ.
-
Advanced epub — An advanced format that uses the latest technology not yet fully supported by most ereaders.
Read online
A brief history of this ebook
More details
Sources
Transcriptions
Page scans
Other sources
Improve this ebook
Anyone can contribute to make a Standard Ebook better for everyone!
To report typos, typography errors, or other corrections, see how to report errors.
If you’re comfortable with technology and want to contribute directly, check out this ebook’s GitHub repository and our contributors section.
You can also donate to Standard Ebooks to help fund continuing improvement of this and other ebooks.