Book Description
Many would consider Plato not only the greatest philosopher ever, but the greatest Greek prose writer as well. Numerous English translations have been attempted, largely to be criticized and forgotten. Over a hundred years after the first edition of his translation in 1871, Benjamin Jowett's reputation remains resilient to time. Jowett (1817-93) was a great classical scholar and Master of Balliol College, Oxford, who spent over fifty years translating and revising these dialogues. He was interested in conveying the literariness of Plato's writings and to offer up a cohesively readable translation that would appeal equally to classics scholars and readers with no knowledge of ancient Greek. This 1892 third edition of Jowett's translation reveals his clearest vision, with his final editorial selections, ordering, and word-polishing; it includes the Eryxias, the Second Alcibiades, twenty-one of Jowett's essays, and marginal analyses, all subsequently omitted. Though Jowett wanted his translation to be improved and corrected from time to time, for its overall consistency and fluidity, this third edition remains a classic that both Plato and Jowett scholars will wish to read and consult.
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Publisher comments
"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates's ancient words are still true, and the ideas sounded in Plato's Dialogues still form the foundation of a thinking person's education. This superb collection contains excellent contemporary translations selected for their clarity and accessibility to today's reader, as well as an incisive introduction by Erich Segal, which reveals Plato's life and clarifies the philosophical issues examined in each dialogue. The first four dialogues recount the trial execution of Socrates--the extraordinary tragedy that changed Plato's life and so altered the course of Western though. Other dialogues create a rich tableau of intellectual life in Athens in the fourth century B.C., and examine the nature of virtue and love, knowledge and truth, society and the individual. Resounding with the humor and astounding brilliance of Socrates, the immortal iconoclast, these great works remain powerful, probing, and essential.
