The Collected Dialogues of Plato: The Collected Dialogues Including the Letters: 18 (Bollingen Series)

Purchased as a gift. All arrived on time and as described. Good introduction to an interesting area of study.

very good

This Plato was an important collection for a generation or two of readers, and, in its day, represented a real milestone. It may still be worth having on hand occasionally, as a second or third source, simply for purposes of sheer comparison. However, it has now clearly been overtaken by Cooper's 1997 edition, published by Hackett, and available on Amazaon at a better price. Cooper uses newer translations, with more modern and more precise English, and includes the entire Thrasyllus corpus. Cooper's notes and comments are of higher quality, and avoid some of the purely impressionistic, even slightly amateurish remarks of this earlier, Bollingen volume.

THIS WAS A TEXTBOOK THAT I READ IN COLLEGE. IT CONTAINS VERY GOOD TRANSLATIONS OF THE DIALOGUES FROM GREEK INTO ENGLISH. IF YOU ARE STUDYING THE BEGINNINGS OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE WEST, THIS IS DEFINITELY A MUST HAVE. PLATO USES SOCRATES AS THE MAIN INTERLOCUTOR IN HIS DIALOGUES; PERHAPS HE'S GIVING US A STYLIZED VERSION OF WHAT REALLY HAPPENED. ARISTOPHANES IN ONE OF HIS PLAYS MAKES FUN OF SOCRATES' APPEARANCE, BUT THE YOUTH OF ATHENS SEEM TO HAVE REALIZED THAT SOCRATES WAS A TRUTH-SEEKER AND RALLIED ROUND HIM. THESE DIALOGUES SHOW US THE BEGINNINGS IN THE WEST OF THAT PHILOSOPHY BASED ON REALITY, AS OPPOSED TO THE BELIEF THAT ONE CAN ONLY KNOW ONESELF, BUT NEVER THE OBJECTIVE REALITY AROUND ONESELF. IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN REALITY, START HERE! .

Princeton's Plato is still the best, at least where writing qua writing is concerned. The translations are from the high old-guard, and so the prose-style is dignified and sparingly elegant. (If this is not to your taste, collections with newer modern-style translations are available - like Cooper and Hutchison's.) The introductions are small and to-the-point, it is true. But we are dealing with a complete Plato, after all. (Consult W.K.C. Guthrie's wonderful history, volumes four and five, for more in-depth commentary.) This is one of the few books that I read cyclically. When I get to the end, I begin again. The construction is good and the onion-skin paper is durable.

From A+ Phiosophy grad from BC, this is the best anthology out there by far

As an amateur philosopher, I have long wished to have Socrates thoughts all in one place in a good translation. This book fits both requirements. It is an excellent translation and Plato's writings of Socrates' thoughts and ideas are simply wonderful. Everyone should read this book. Certainly everyone interested in any sort of philosophy.

Everything