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The Cambridge Companion to Plato (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy)

by Richard Kraut (Editor)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 32 ratings
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The Cambridge Companion to Plato (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy)
The Cambridge Companion to Plato (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy)
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Plato stands as the fount of our philosophical tradition, being the first Western thinker to produce a body of writing that touches upon a wide range of topics still discussed by philosophers today. In a sense he invented philosophy as a distinct subject, for although many of these topics were discussed by his intellectual predecessors and contemporaries, he was the first to bring them together by giving them a unitary treatment. This volume contains fourteen new essays discussing Plato's views about knowledge, reality, mathematics, politics, ethics, love, poetry, and religion. There are also analyses of the intellectual and social background of his thought, the development of his philosophy throughout his career, the range of alternative approaches to his work, and the stylometry of his writing.
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  1. ISBN-10
    9780521436106
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0521436106
  3. Publisher
    Cambridge University Press
  4. Publication date
    October 30, 1992
  5. Part of series
    Cambridge Companions to Philosophy
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6 x 1.44 x 9 inches
  8. Print length
    578 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is an unusually well coordinated composite work, with a lengthy bibliography and good index. ... The volume can be commended to the use of graduate students and advanced undergraduates." Religious Studies Review

"...should prove quite useful....For its intended audience, and also their instructors, this Companion will live up to its name, and Kraut and his contributors are to be commended." R.E. Houser, International Philosophical Quarterly

"Richard Kraut has put together a rich collection of fifteen newly-commisioned articles on various aspects of Plato's thought, plus an extensive bibliography of secondary articles and books...". Ancient Philosophy

Book Description

Fourteen specially-commissioned essays discuss Plato's views about knowledge, reality, mathematics, politics, ethics, love, poetry, and religion.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0521436109
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press (October 30, 1992)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 578 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780521436106
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0521436106
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.7 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.44 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 32 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
32 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

John B.
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2006
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This is a very good overview of Plato's philosophy. I would recommend this volume for those that want to learn of his philosophy without reading that acual works.
2 people found this helpful
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Martin Baca
5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2015
Reading Plato's dialogues is demanding. I am sure that common readers (such as students, average readers or scholars who are not specialist in Plato's works) are not to understand deeply enough without help. And "help" means interpretative literatures. Just this book is mention kind of literature. It presents 15 excellent articles from 14 distinguished authors (R. Kraut, G. Fine, G. Ferrari, M. Frede, to name a few) and the articles deal with various subjects, such as chronology, Socratic question, religion, love, epistemology, justice, politics, Third Man, etc. Although interpretative literature is really necessary, you should not suppose that studying this 'Companion' is enough... For example, Plato's dialogue 'Phaedo' has ca 50-60 pages, but there are thousends pages written about this Plato's dialogue. In other words, to read this books is useful (or necessary), but is not sufficient! If you want to understand Plato's at lest at a average level, you have to read also other works, I roughly estimate at least 5-10 other works. And final remark - if you want to understand Plato's messages, you have to put on primary place Plato's works, not works of interpretators; in any words, you have to read Plato's works as often as possible.
One person found this helpful
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David Ebbert
5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy Read
Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2014
This text provides some of the most incisive commentary on the dialogues of Plato I have found.
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Jeffrey Barnouw
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2014
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good collection
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Anon
3.0 out of 5 stars Better ways to spend fifty bucks
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2016
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To be honest, I can't really tell who the intended audience is here. Cambridge commissioned a bunch of academics to write essays, and often times, you can tell they're putting as little work in as possible to get the money. The essays are basically divided into wildly obscure pieces and "No, duh" essays.

Three essays in, you get a piece on the chronology of Plato's work. Great topic. But the author really means it. It examines things like the number of instances Plato wrote "indeed," and uses that as a basis to put together a timeframe. If you're interested in the chronology of the dialogues, nearly every introduction of translations of Plato's works will give you a less complicated thesis. I'm sure a lot of work went into this piece, but, again, I have no idea who the audience for this is. I'm not even sure academics would be interested, unless they're devoting their life's work into the historicity of Plato.

Other essays take otherwise clear dialogues and obfuscate them so much that you have no idea what you're reading. Almost all essays require that you're familiar with everything Plato has ever written, including the dialogues we aren't even sure he wrote. In addition, I hope you're also up to date on your Aristotle, because his works are cited in nearly every essay. So keep that in mind. To take in any of this information, you'll need to have read and studied almost every work of ancient Greek philosophy (and if you have, by the way, why would you need this book?).

The essays that aren't impossible to read serve little purpose. An essay on Platonic Love just reiterates The Symposium and Phadreus (with a hint of contempt, by the way), without adding anything new. Neither of those dialogues are particularly difficult to read, so I'm not sure why you'd need a summary. In fact, there is quite a lot of contempt in this volume.

I don't know. I can appreciate the work some of these writers put in, and something tells me there is a group of people out there for whom it will be of massive interest. I just don't know who it is. Not students, not casual readers, not teachers, and probably not even a large swath of academics. Definitely not anyone who isn't 100% well-versed in every single work of Plato and most of Aristotle. There are a few I haven't read that could very well be decent. So I don't want to dismiss it outright. You're basically just getting short thesis papers from fifteen authors who got paid to write whatever they wanted. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this will be of great interest to you, and I'm reading it the wrong way. But maybe "look inside" on Amazon first and ask yourself if you'll really be better off having spent fifty dollars on this. I haven't read any of the other Cambridge Companions, but I am open to ordering another one on a different subject. I doubt they have dubious intentions. Supplemental material is always great, and I'm glad volumes like this are being published. But, for most people here on Amazon, I can guarantee that at least half of these essays won't be of any interest or use to you.
21 people found this helpful
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Lee, Jung Yup
5.0 out of 5 stars Is Justice always good?
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2000
In Plato's <republic>, he justify the idea of goodness. His dialetic speech is so tight and logic that everybody in this dialogue agree his opinion(doxa). Plato has willing to persue the episteme(truth knowledge, not doxa), and this will be connects the idea of goodness. This book has 15 essays on Plato's philosophy. and every article has their themes; for example <physics in plato's philosophy>. Readers can get the better orthodox toward Plato's philosophy with this book.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

comenius
5.0 out of 5 stars Great service!
Reviewed in Canada on November 23, 2021
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Great quality, accurate description, very fast service. Highly recommended.
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Geoffrey Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 13, 2016
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excellent
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Robert Carey
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 4, 2014
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excellent
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Michael
3.0 out of 5 stars Not an Introduction
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2021
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The essays are probably good, but this is no introduction. For example they spend 30 pages talking about the order Plato wrote his works in. Definitely not what I was looking for, but probably excellent for some graduate students wanting to go deep.
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Dominic Perugino
2.0 out of 5 stars More respect for the book please.
Reviewed in Canada on January 13, 2016
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An unremovable stiker at the back of the book. Poorly handled, seems to have been damaged by moving in the box.
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