plato's translation in english 20thcentury commentary

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Book Notes

Plato and Socrates

CHRISTOPHER ROWE

There is evidently an increasing interest among scholars in ancient perspec-tives on Plato and on Socrates On Plato there are now Julia AnnasOtildes 1997Townsend lectures given at Cornell1 and Harold TarrantOtildes PlatoOtildes First Interpreters2 on Socrates Francesca AlesseOtildes La Stoa e la tradizione socra-

tica3 TarrantOtildes book has the aim of taking us back to a time when users andinterpreters of Plato were less philosophically sophisticated but still spokesomething like the Greek he used Ocirc[t]he ultimate object [being] not to under-stand little known Platonic gures but to encourage a fresh almost primitivereading of Plato himselfOtilde (vii) This looks like a promise to take us away fromthe hubbub of modern voices to a world in which readers were both moreinnocent than us and better placed to understand the master if it is it is not obviously how things turn out The ancients on TarrantOtildes own account had

their problems with the texts their own quarrels with each other and their own habits of reading ndash habits which are likely to be as much in need of justication as many of our own But what is certainly true is that an under-standing of the ways in which Plato was once read will give us extra reasonfor reconsidering the ways in which we do it now and this is what ultimatelymatters to Tarrant (as he says towards the end Ocircthe main aim of this book has been to discuss issues of meta-interpretationOtilde 198)

Tarrant by and large compares modern and ancient approaches though he

also sometimes interposes his own voice Thus eg OcircFor [Proclus] all aspectsof all parts of a dialogue were relevant to its goal At times he was toodevoted an advocate for PlatoOtildes skills at times too ingenious but he had thecorrect overall strategy The ancients did not eschew the task of saying what they thought was relevant in a dialogue and justifying their position and nei-ther should we todayOtilde (41)4 Julia AnnasOtildes strategy has a somewhat different

copy Koninklijke Brill NV Leiden 2001 Phronesis XLVI2

1 Julia Annas Platonic Ethics Old and New Pp viii + 196 Cornell University

Press Ithaca NY 1999 ISBN 0-8014-3518-8 (hbk) No price given2 Tarrant Harold PlatoOtildes First Interpreters Pp viii + 263 Duckworth London

2000 ISBN 0-7156-2929-8 pound4000 (hbk)3 Alesse Francesca La Stoa e la tradizione socratica Pp 387 Bibliopolis Naples

(Elenchos Collana di testi e studi sul pensiero antico 30) 2000 ISBN 88-7088-379-5 Lire 50000 (pbk)

4 The implicit strategy of the book seems to be to begin by raising some theoretical



emphasis using ancient perspectives ndash bolstered by additional arguments ndashdirectly to undermine modern assumptions5 contrasting ancient tendencies tounitarianism with modern OcircdevelopmentalismOtilde (ch 1) and especially the ideathat there is a fundamental shift of ethical position between the OcircSocraticOtilde ieOcircearlyOtilde dialogues and what comes after these (ch 2 even late on Plato is a

eudaimonist) exploring the ancient PlatonistsOtilde emphasis on the concept of Ocircbecoming like godOtilde which we moderns have tended to underplay (ch 3)6

continuing her attack on the treatment of the Republic as a mainly political work (ch 4) ndash among other things on the basis of AlcinousOtilde view that theOcircsufciency of virtueOtilde thesis is to be found Ocircparticularly in the whole of the RepublicOtilde (Annas 84) questioning the standard modern view of the differ-ence Platonic metaphysics (ie form theory) makes to Platonic ethics (ch 5ancient Platonists ndash Alcinous once more plays a prominent role ndash (a) are uni-

tarians (b) treat metaphysics separately from ethics and (c) nd agreement in much of Platonic ethics with the Stoa who emphatically rejected Platonic

questions with the Middle Platonists (in particular) as guides (Part I) to trace the his-tory of Plato interpretation down to the Neoplatonists (Part II) and nally to take acloser look at some ancient treatments of particular dialogues and groups of dialogues(Part III) ndash where the emphasis as in the book generally is on studying Ocircinterpreta-

tion largely as interpretation not as doctrineOtilde (214) and in the context of the corpusas a whole rather than of Ocirchigh proleOtilde dialogues (ibid) (OcircInterpreters acquire visionsvisions fuelled by but other than the texts that they interpret When the vision isimposed upon the text instead of teased out of it then interpretation proper gives wayto doctrineOtilde 213) The usefulness of our categories of OcircearlyOtilde and OcircmiddleOtilde dialogues(ch 8 ch 10) is one particular target other Ocircmeta-interpretativeOtilde conclusions are lesseasy to sort out from a somewhat dense presentation of an admittedly highly complexbody of material But there is no doubt that it is a useful book especially coming ndash

as it does ndash at a moment when some of our standard assumptions are already look-

ing distinctly less secure than they did5 So the argument is not that the ancients must have got things right just that as a

matter of fact they did (as one can see if one gets a proper view of the issues unham-pered by newly-manufactured baggage)

6 Cf David SedleyOtildes OcircThe ideal of godlikenessOtilde one of the new pieces in GailFineOtildes Plato 1 and 2 (see Phronesis 45 (2000) 172 [where Ocirc1 and 2Otilde became Ocirc I and II Otilde by a slip of the nger]) a piece which ndash as Annas herself recognizes ndash makes asimilar general point while developing it in a rather different way cf also Therse-Anne Druart OcircThe Timaeus revisitedOtilde in van Ophuijsen (ed) (see below) andKatharina Comoth Vom Grunde der Idee Konstellationen mit Platon (p 48UniversitŠtsverlag C Winter Heidelberg 2000 ISBN 3-8253-0999-1 DM 1700(pbk)) the rst piece in which brie y discusses Ocirc OgraveHomoiosisOacute bei Platon und OrigenesOtilde(originally published elsewhere) The two other tiny pieces ndash OcircDie Seele vom OgraveGesetzSelbstOacute Platons Nomoi in kosmologischer BedeutungOtilde given at the Salamanca con-gress on the Laws (see Lisi ed below) and OcircPerUuml tdegw currenn aecirctCcedili politeUcircaw dedintildetiPlaton Politeia 608b1Otilde ndash make some unexpected connections with visual symbols

210 BOOK NOTES



metaphysics) using Alcinous (again) to construct a unitary picture of Platonicmoral psychology with no break between Socratic intellectualism andPlatonic irrationalism (ch 6) and musing on how much help ancient accountsof PlatoOtildes position on pleasure give us in trying to make sense of the rather different things he seems to say about it (ch 7 not much the answer seems

to be and an appendix argues strongly that the hedonism of the Protagorasin any case contributes little towards explaining OcircPlatonic theses outside the Protagoras itselfOtilde (171))

AnnasOtildes approach claims a good deal more than TarrantOtildes insofar as sheproposes that the Ocircancient PlatonistsOtilde as interpreters deserve our OcirccondenceOtildeif we nd disagreement between Alcinous on the one hand and Galen andPlutarch on the other over PlatoOtildes moral psychology this Ocircobviously should not lead us to lose condence in the ancient Platonists as interpreters ndash for here

the two different approaches alert us to a tension in PlatoOtildes own writingsOtilde(162) If the latter two (OcircunfortunatelyOtilde) were attracted by the Ocircsuppressed-beastOtilde model of the human being (135) that is (Annas implies) understand-able since it is actually to be found in Plato ndash alongside the model that attributes parts uncontrolled by reason only to the not-yet-virtuous Yet (I aminclined to object) no clear grounds are given for preferring AlcinousOtilde account of PlatoOtildes (real) position here over GalenOtildes and PlutarchOtildes beyond the sug-gestion that the latter involves Ocircan unattractive and dangerous way of look-

ing at myselfOtilde (ibid) in particular it is not shown that the latter would failto make sense of those passages on which the Alcinous interpretation relies(whichever these may be) At this point my own OcirccondenceOtilde in Alcinous asinterpreter at any rate on this issue is rather small and it is weakened fur-ther by the knowledge that Aristotle ndash admittedly not a paid-up Platonistbut still an ex-Academician ndash gives us repeated reports of the existence of athorough-going OcircintellectualistOtilde position to which Plato would have been ex-posed (if it belonged to Socrates as Aristotle says it did) and which actually

does make sense of certain texts normally considered earlier than the Repub-lic (These texts will at least include the ones Annas thinks of as containing not OcircSocratic intellectualismOtilde but rather Ocircsimply an understated view which is not trying to abolish parts of the soul other than the rational but simply sayingnothing about themOtilde 121)

Here at least OcircdevelopmentOtilde seems to me a good bet (and in line with onebranch of ancient Platonist interpretation) Annas makes a good case on theother hand for the absence of any sharp changes on pleasure for saying that

Plato was always a eudaimonist and for claiming that so-called OcircmiddleOtilde-typeforms are of little consequence for ethics and she is surely right that we havepaid insufcient attention to the notion of homoitradesis thetradei in Plato If so andinsofar as Ocircthe ancient PlatonistsOtilde (Ocircin particular the Middle [ones]Otilde (p 1) as with Tarrant) got these things right her overall claim about the value to usof the ancient interpreters looks plausible enough in some important respectsthey may well have done better than many of us have so far The chapter on

BOOK NOTES 211



the Republic which I found the least convincing7 is actually one where theMiddle Platonists seem to gure rather little by the end at any rate I hadformed a rather clearer notion of AnnasOtildes view of the dialogue than I had egof AlcinousOtilde

One of the effects of AnnasOtildes approach is frequently to assimilate Platonic

and Stoic ethics for after all the Middle Platonists were thoroughly familiar with Stoic theory and had in many respects thoroughly absorbed it Annasin the event turns this point to her advantage or tries to do so Platonic andStoic ethics are closely related (eg or especially over the nature of happi-ness) and the main difference is that OcircPlato has not been forced by debateto sharpen the issues that arise and as a result he is often unclear or inde-terminate on points where later Stoics had been forced by argument to cometo a denite conclusionOtilde (3) Another part of AnnasOtildes strategy is to downplay

the continuities as opposed to the apparent discontinuities between Plato andAristotle and between Plato Aristotle and Stoicism thus AristotleOtildes notionof athanatizein gures only brie y in a footnote in ch 3 and the Platonist understanding of Plato on pleasure is said OcircinterestinglyOtilde to resemble the Stoicidea of pleasure as OcircsuperventionOtilde even though Aristotle OcircsuggestsOtilde the notionand something like it is supposed to be present at least in the Laws (145-7)(But this perhaps has more to do with the rhetoric than the substance of AnnasOtildes argument) From AlesseOtildes perspective ( La Stoa e la tradizione socra-

tica see above) the main continuity is between the Stoics and Socrates8 inan unconscious echo of AnnasOtildes argument the StoicsOtilde Socratic positions areseen as sharpened by the need to respond to Platonic and Aristotelian Ocircdevi-azioniOtilde from and criticisms of Socrates himself (p 23 and Part 2) Part of AlesseOtildes general thesis is that if the Stoics wanted to present themselves asbeing the intellectual descendants of Socrates this was not just because of the

7 For one thing it leaves large chunks of the dialogue unexplained how much of

the apparently political stuff would we really need for the purpose Annas attributes tothe author (No doubt there is an answer to this if so I simply record that AnnasOtildesown arguments looked unpersuasive to me)

8 See also Christopher TaylorOtildes shortest of introductions to Socrates (CCW TaylorSocrates A Very Short Introduction Pp 122 Oxford University Press Oxford 2000ISBN 0-19-285412-7 pound599 $895 (pbk)) for Taylor it is centrally a matter of con-tinuing incoherence (pp 64-71 82-3) For a statement of the main issues about Socrates as these currently stand this libellus could scarcely be bettered if nearlyeveryone is likely to disagree with some part of TaylorOtildes account (especially of PlatoOtildes

Socrates ndash though actually this occupies less than a quarter of the volume) it is goodto have so clear an overall picture to disagree with Although it does not say so thebook is a reprint of the 1998 Past Masters Socrates with nicely chosen (but not par-ticularly well reproduced) illustrations Jonathan BarnesOtildes Aristotle from the sameseries has been given the same treatment RM HareOtildes Plato has not (no Plato appearsin the list of Very Short titles) ndash HareOtildes well-known conceit of the heavenly twins Patoand Lato was evidently not enough to save it

212 BOOK NOTES



inuence of Socratic epigoni like Crates Ocircma soprattutto per via di unaconoscenza diretta e vasta della pi antica letteratura socraticaOtilde (14) A gooddeal of the StoicsOtilde own writing itself belonged self-consciously to the genreof OcircSocratic literatureOtilde they were perpetually in negotiation with other suchliterature ndash including literature critical of Socrates ndash for the soul of Socrates

and for the truth Part 1 of the book (Ocircla discendenza della Stoa da SocrateOtilde)discusses the biographical and doxographical traditions chronological prob-lems the Old Stoa and Socratic literature and Socrates in Stoic literaturePart 2 (Ocircthe defence of SocratesOtilde) centres on Stoic criticism of Platonic formsChrysippus against Plato and AristotleOtildes criticisms of Socrates while Part 3tries to get clear about the StoicsOtilde precise relationship to Socratic dialecticand ethics I have not had time to assess the detailed argument of the book(and there is a lot of detailed and very specic argument in it) but to all

appearances it takes OcircSocratic studiesOtilde a step further in a promising directionEven if OcircSocratesOtilde and OcircSocratismOtilde are no more than a matter of a Sokrates-dichtung (Gigon) that has no effect on AlesseOtildes argument Ocircper quel che riguardala conoscenza del Socrate storico non cOtilde alcuna differenza tra gli Stoici e imoderni cosldquo non ce nOtilde tra gli Stoici e poniamo Aristotele Diogene diSinope PolemoneOtilde (22) As for their knowledge of the OcircliteraryOtilde Socrates theStoics had access to a body of writing now mostly lost but plainly exhibit-ing a certain OcircdifformitˆOtilde which they recognized Ocircsuperandola talora con

soluzioni di compromesso talora prediligendo un testimone ad un altroOtilde It took until the imperial era to establish Ocircin modo pi denitivo la natura esem-plare ed univoca di SocrateOtilde (ibid)

Stoic and Socratic there in the imperial era meet in Dio Chrysostomand ndash more substantially ndash in Epictetus OcircSocrates provides a privileged inter-pretative key that helps to situate Dio in a philosophical perspective and toaccount for his peculiar approach to philosophical traditions ndash Cynicism espe-cially but also Stoicism ndash which in ancient culture and doxography were seen

as deriving directly from SocratesOtilde so Aldo Brancacci in a piece (OcircDio Socratesand CynicismOtilde 241) in Dio Chrysostom Politics Letters and Philosophy9

which among other things has some suggestive things to say about some non-Platonic Socrateses10 In AA LongOtildes OcircEpictetus as Socratic mentorOtilde in the lat-est Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society11 we surprisingly ndEpictetus anticipating Gregory VlastosOtildes interpretation of the Socratic OcircelenchusOtilde

9 Simon Swain (ed) Dio Chrysostom Politics Letters and Philosophy Pp x +308 Oxford University Press Oxford 2000 ISBN 0-19-924359X pound50 (hbk)

10 Part Four on Dio and philosophy also has Michael Trapp on OcircPlato in DioOtilde(Plato as stylist Socrates Plato and Stoicism) and Frederick E Brenk on OcircDio on thesimple and self-sufcient lifeOtilde

11 PCPS 46 (2000) (It is not the business of these Notes to review journal articlesI use this particular article because it particularly struck me and ts into my narrative)

BOOK NOTES 213



OcircIn EpictetusOtilde account of involuntary error we have noticed his extraordinar-ily optimistic rationalism clearly show someone that his or her present behav-iour or set of values is inconsistent with what they really want for themselvesndash ie long-term happiness ndash and they will recognise their mistake Thecogency of this recommendation rests on the assumption (1) that human

beings are natural truth- and consistency-lovers and (2) that they possess truebeliefs or preconceptions concerning their own good which when brought tolight and properly articulated will cause them to abandon their false andinconsistent beliefs Epictetus has anticipated Gregory VlastosOtilde interpreta-tion of the Socratic elenchusOtilde12 I wonder whether in fact we need this inorder to explain EpictetusOtilde Socratic position Why will it not do just to havesomething like the following OcircThe basis of the [Socratic] theory is the com-bination of the conception of goodness as that property which guarantees

overall success in life with the substantive thesis that what in fact guaranteesthat success is knowledge of what is best for the agent This in turn rests ona single comprehensive theory of human motivation namely that the agentOtildesconception of what is overall best for him- or herself (ie what best promoteseudaimonia overall success in life) is sufcient to motivate action with a viewto its own realization This motivation involves desire as well as beliefSocrates maintains ( Meno 77c 78b) that everyone desires good things whichin context has to be interpreted as the strong thesis that the desire for good

is a standing motive which requires to be focused in one direction or another via a conception of the overall good Given that focus desire is locked ontothe target which is picked out by the conception without the possibility of interference by conicting desires Hence all that is required for correct con-duct is the correct focus which has to be a correct conception of the agentOtildesoverall goodOtilde (CCW Taylor)13 So far as I can see (at least given theaccount Long provides) all that Epictetus is asking for is a method that willbe effective in showing people that what they are proposing to do is in conict

with what is really good for them if LongOtildes (1) and (2) are involved at allthis might be just to the extent that they are implied by the sort of theorydescribed by Taylor and there is no reason to bring in VlastosOtildes version of them ndash the Ocirctwofold assumption rst that any set of entirely consistent beliefs beliefs that have withstood constant testing must be true and secondthat whoever has a false moral belief will always have at the same time truebeliefs entailing the negation of that false beliefOtilde14 VlastosOtildes version givesSocrates or is supposed to give him an avenue to the truth in general the

less extravagant one just gives the agent access to the real good

12 OcircEpictetus as Socratic mentorOtilde 91-2 the reference is to Vlastos Socratic Studiesed MF Burnyeat (Cambridge 1994) 1-29 esp 22-9

13 Socrates (n 8 above) 62-314 Long OcircEpictetus as Socratic mentorOtilde 92

214 BOOK NOTES



In fact whatever we may want to say about Epictetus what Vlastos saysabout SocratesOtilde own view and use of Ocircthe elenchusOtilde has surely been shown ndasheg by Hugh Benson15 ndash to outrun the (Platonic) evidence But even Bensondoes not (in the article cited in the preceding footnote) question one aspect of VlastosOtildes account which has for some reason become standard in treat-

ments of this thing called Ocircthe elenchusOtilde despite (what I claim is) the lack of supporting evidence the view that what Socrates examines in Ocircthe elenchusOtildeis peopleOtildes beliefs Mary Margaret McCabe is in good company when at thebeginning of her new book Plato and his Predecessors16 she takes this viewfor granted ndash or rather because she is evidently persuaded by those texts that seem to support VlastosOtildes claim that the rules of Ocircthe elenchusOtilde require that the interlocutor Ocircsay what he believesOtilde17 The trouble as I see it is that what-ever those texts might appear to imply what is examined is not typically what

the interlocutor believes or not what the interlocutor believes at all (so that perhaps we should look for a different explanation of the passages about sin-cerity might it not be sometimes just the demand that people say what theyreally think about the argument ) Often SocratesOtilde interlocutors have not properly thought about something and only some special theory about belief would convert what he eventually gets from them into their beliefs some-times he is rather examining his own beliefs (as in the Crito ndash at any ratehe appears to be examining his own more than he is examining CritoOtildes) For

sure what Socrates is supposed to do is to Ocircexamine himself and othersOtilde But this may always be done indirectly as well as directly ndash being found not toknow about something important or to be confused about it will ipso factoshow that one needs a bit more philosophy in oneOtildes life18

However none of these so far abby generalities would do much damageto McCabeOtildes overall argument The or a standard view is that Plato comesto move away from Socratic OcircelenchusOtilde of individual souls or persons infavour of a greater engagement with impersonal theses For this simple his-

tory McCabe proposes a more elaborate and elegant substitute Reection

15 See esp his essay on OcircThe dissolution of the problem of the elenchusOtilde Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 13 (1995) 45-112 cf Tarrant in Robinson and Brisson(ed) n 52 below

16 Mary Margaret McCabe Plato and his Predecessors The Dramatisation of ReasonPp viii + 318 Cambridge University Press Cambridge 2000 ISBN 0-521-65306-1pound3730 $5995 (hbk) (The book originated as McCabeOtildes 1996 Stanford Lectures)

17 OcircIf the sincerity condition claims that we should take what people believe as thestarting point of inquiry Otilde McCabe 29

18 As one would especially given the conict between (true) OcircdeepOtilde wantsbeliefsand OcircshallowOtilde beliefs discussed at McCabe 58-9 in connection with Gorgias 482a ff(On the other hand I am not sure how much this passage has to do with the demandfor OcircsincerityOtilde The appendix on Ocircsincerity textsOtilde on pp 54-9 generally seems to bringtogether a rather mixed bag of items)

BOOK NOTES 215



Ocircon the Socratic methodOtilde (37 n 30) a method already problematized by through Protagoras in the Theaetetus leads Plato to ask Ocircwhat makes [our]true beliefs true what makes us have them what makes us get our other ones wrongOtilde (59)19 and to the construction of a quasi-Cartesian episte-mology (cf pp 281-3) the possibility of philosophy depends on the possibil-

ity of other minds and so on Ocircthe identity continuity and separateness of personsOtilde (91) Plato sets himself up ndash in three of McCabeOtildes four target dia-loguesTheaetetus Sophist Politicusand Philebusndash with opponents (ProtagorasHeraclitus Parmenides earth-born giants and ndash possibly ndash Philebus) who asshe puts it Ocircfail to turn upOtilde That is they are found to be ctional as well ashistorical ctional because they represent positions that Ocirccannot be occupiedby reasoning persons living livesOtilde (so that Ocirctheir theories turn out to threatentheir own livesOtilde 90) The Politicus for its part suggests that Ocircphilosophy the

inquiring sort is at least in the conditions of the golden age sufcient for happiness and possibly necessary as wellOtilde (230) and by the time we arethrough with the Philebus that subtle combination of metaphysics and ethics we know why this is supposed to be ndash namely (to put a complex idea crudely)because the telos is gured as the perfectibility of persons Ocircand progress istowards personhood by means of intellectual orderOtilde (269) where OcircpersonhoodOtildeis constituted by the coherence of our epistemic state and that coherence ismeasured by the degree to which it mirrors the coherence of the external

world It is dialogue that brings out our ownership of beliefs (OcircsincerityOtildeagain) and OcircensuresOtilde their connectedness (270 witness the failure of Pro-tagoras et al) and the reading of sample dialogues like the ones in questionin its turn prompts us the readers to a new reectiveness Thus we have anexplanation both of why Ocircperson-to-person dialecticOtilde matters so much to Platoand of why he goes on writing dialogues which (as her subtitle partly sug-gests) is one of the main things that McCabe originally set out to explain For her Ocircthe dialogue form not only persists but gains in importance in the late

period especially in my late quartetOtilde (10)20

One does not I think have to accept all of McCabeOtildes story about OcircpersonsOtildeand OcircpersonhoodOtilde or about Ocircthe elenchusOtilde to nd this whole account richlysuggestive (as well as bracingly provocative)21 It is also surely the best kind

19 The immediate reference in the context is to our Ocircdeep beliefsOtilde (see precedingn) These are evidently direct descendants of Vlastosian Ocirctrue beliefs entailing thenegation of [those] false belief[s]Otilde uncovered by Ocircthe elenchusOtilde (text to n 14 above)

the difference being that on McCabeOtildes account Socrates has rather less than even animplicitly worked-out theory of truth and needs Plato to help him out

20 OcircCentral to this I claimOtilde (McCabe continues) Ocircis the fact that the drama of thedialogues is ction all of these characters including Socrates himself are imaginaryOtilde(there may be Ocircsome connections between any particular ctional gure and its his-torical counterpart but those connections should not be taken for grantedOtilde)

21 Nor I think does her general thesis actually require that the cosmos under Cronosin the Politicus myth be going backwards (ch 5) her defence of this view seems to

216 BOOK NOTES



of response to the continuing complaint that OcircanalyticOtilde philosophers like McCabepay too little attention to the dramatic form of the dialogues22 (Certainlythere is no shortage of treatments of this particular subject see now alsoGiovanni CasertanoOtildes edited volume La struttura del dialogo platonico23) Nosuch complaint need be levelled against Angela Hobbs and her Plato and the

me of a piece with her reading the age of Zeus as a story about self-determination(ch 8) rather than about the (temporary) victory of human reason over Ocircinnate desireOtilde

22 See Gerald Press in Who Speaks for Plato (Gerald A Press Who Speaks for Plato Studies in Platonic Anonymity Pp 237 Rowman and Littleeld Lanham MD2000 ISBN 0-8476-9218-3 (hbk) 0-8476-9219-1 (pbk) No price given) p 3 n 12though Press is actually here complimenting McCabeOtildes and Christopher GillOtildes Form

and Argument in Late Plato (1996) for Ocircshow[ing] an increased interest in dialogueform among OgraveanalyticOacute Plato scholars to whom the volume is limitedOtilde OcircAnalyticOtilde ispresumably intended here to pick out the sort of scholar who typically neglects formin favour of argument though numbers in this category seem to be falling fast ndash unlessnding philosophical explanations of PlatoOtildes use of the dialogue is not to count Onthe face of it the question asked by PressOtildes volume (a copy of which he generouslygave me) is a non-question like the one about whether Homer told the truth After all since Plato wrote the parts of all his characters presumably everything every oneof them says ought to be treated in principle as somehow relevant to his overall pur-

pose in writing (hence Erik OstenfeldOtildes OcircWho speaks for Plato EveryoneOtilde ch 14 alsondash more colourfully ndash Ruby BlondellOtildes OcircLetting Plato speak for himself character andmethod in the RepublicOtilde ch 9 and in a way Holger Thesleff in ch 4 OcircThe philoso-pher conducting dialecticOtilde Lloyd Gerson is fairly scathing about Ocircthe antimouthpiecetheoryOtilde as a whole ch 13) nevertheless clearly ndash absent some theoretical anti-Platonchez Platon and perhaps even then ndash there are some characters who donOtildet speak for Plato or at least as the rational part of him wants him to be heard The question con- jures up some straw men and straw Platos but by and large the volume represents auseful exercise (so maybe after all it was not a non-question) Having read the whole

I would still hold that no one has yet shown that Plato wants to dissociate himself signi cantly or nally from any of his main characters In this volume Francisco JGonzalez (ch 11 OcircThe Eleatic Stranger His MasterOtildes VoiceOtilde) nds more reasons for claiming that Plato would have meant to distance himself from the Visitor fromElea ndash one of these reasons being that the ideal state of the Politicus would itself ex-clude Socrates But to that I respond that there is the same degree of likelihood that theideal state might come into existence as there is that Socrates would come to be in aposition to claim to have the knowledge that mattered or alternatively that the idealstateOtildes coming into existence would depend on SocratesOtilde getting that knowledge

23 La struttura del dialogo platonico A cura di Giovanni Casertano Pp 331 Lof-fredo Editore Napoli 2000 (Collana di testi e studi di losa antica 14) ISBN 88-8096-720-7 Lire 32000 (pbk) The range of the contributions is wide Giovanni CerriOcircDalla dialettica allOtildeepos Platone Repubblica X Timeo CriziaOtilde Jos Trindade SantosOcircLa struttura dialogica del Menone una lettura retroattivaOtilde (dialogue form allows us toread Ocircnonsequenzialmente facendo retroagire le conclusioni delle conversazioni posteriorisulle anterioriOtilde 50) Theodor Ebert OcircUna nuova interpretazione del Fedone platonicaOtilde(a Pythagorean Socrates addressing his fellow-Pythagoreans Ocircpraticate la dialetticaOtilde)

BOOK NOTES 217



Hero24 which in large part centres not on Socrates but on some of his most colourful interlocutors especially Callicles Alcibiades and Thrasymachus ndashand on another presence in the Republic and elsewhere Achilles25

In the Republic Plato seems to move beyond the simple opposition that dominates the Gorgias and the Phaedo between the life of reason and the

life of desire now he has Socrates introduce a third element in the shape of the thumos Yet Hobbs suggests many of the issues for which the thumosthere becomes the focus have already been raised Modern scholarly litera-ture has tended to play down the thumos ndash wrongly (Hobbs says) because it is central to PlatoOtildes conception of the self one which in large part he shared with the culture to which he belonged26 OcircI wish to claim that the essence of the human thumos is the need to believe that one counts for something andthat central to this need will be a tendency to form an ideal image of oneself

in accordance with oneOtildes conception of the ne and noble [kalon] If oneOtildesbehaviour reveals this cherished image of oneself to be a sham then angerself-disgust and shame are likely to be the result This ideal of oneself also

Mario Vegetti OcircSocietˆ dialogica e strategie argomentative nella Repubblica (e controla Repubblica)Otilde (partly contra TŸbingen n 29 below also contrast Newell below)Casertano OcircDal mito al logo al mito la struttura del FedoneOtilde Roberto Velardi OcircScrit-

tura e tradizione dei dialoghi di PlatoneOtilde (which ends on a note of scepticism about the idea of Platonic anonymity see preceding n) Stefania Nonvel Pieri OcircIl limitedella complessit Sulla struttura dialogica in Platone a partire da alcuni dialoghi esem-plariOtilde Maurizio Migliori OcircTra polifonia e puzzle Esempi di rilettura del OgravegiocoOacutelosocodi PlatoneOtilde (Ocirc un sistema che devOtildeessere nel contempo chiuso e aperto Otilde 212)Serana Rotandaro OcircStrutture narrative e argomentative del CarmideOtilde Lidia PalumboOcircStruttura narrative e tempo nel TeetetoOtilde Marco Esposito OcircEsempi di analogia mate-matica come struttura argomentativa in PlatoneOtilde Giovanna Cappelletti OcircSimposio e Fedro variazioni strutturali del discorso dOtildeamoreOtilde Pamela Grisei OcircVisione e conoscenza

Il OgravegiocoOacute analogico di Repubblica VI-VIIOtilde (Ocircresta lOtildeipotesi che Platone non abbiavoluto scriverne [sc del Bene]Otilde 296 contrast Vegetti on Rep 533A on p 84) AriannaFermani OcircEros tra retorica e losoa Il OgravegiocoOacute polisemantico del FedroOtilde

24 Hobbs Angela Plato and the Hero Courage Manliness and the ImpersonalGood Pp xvii + 280 Cambridge University Press Cambridge 2000 ISBN 0-521-41733-3 pound3750 (hbk) (Hobbs also respects or means to respect Platonic Ocircanony-mityOtilde Plato and the Hero xiii)

25 The year 2000 saw the reissue in paperback of that staple of the Ocircnew kind of PlatonismOtilde identied by Press (Who Speaks for Plato (n 22 above) 2) ie the kind

that takes dramatic form seriously RB RutherfordOtildes The Art of Plato DuckworthLondon 2000 Pp xv + 335 ISBN 0-7156-2993-X pound1699 This is an exact replicaof its hardback predecessor published in 1995 (even reproducing the old ISBN) itsview of the later dialogues (Ocirca difference [ie lessening] of pace and vigourOtilde p 278)themselves treated in a single chapter contrasts strikingly with McCabeOtildes

26 Further than that as parallels in Nietzsche Adler and Freud tend to show Ocircinthe thumos Plato has hit upon psychological traits of real importanceOtilde (41)

218 BOOK NOTES



needs to be conrmed by social recognition The obtaining of this recog-nition will require self-assertion and perhaps aggression and any offencecommitted to oneOtildes self-image by others will prompt anger and a desire toretaliateOtilde (30) The connections of this Hobbsian thumos with Achilles and with Homer are evident enough It constitutes a Ocircset of motivations and be-

havioural characteristicsOtilde (34) which is Ocircpart of the living personality not of theimmortal soulOtilde ( Republic X Timaeus 31-3) ndash and one Plato recognizes that he will need to take into account in proposing his own choice of life howotherwise to appeal to all those energetic young aristocrats (Male of courseThroughout the book Hobbs is also concerned with issues of gender how inparticular does Plato negotiate the tension between the demand for femaleauxiliariesphilosopher-queens and an ideal ndash of courage ndash stated in terms of OcircmanlinessOtilde andreia)

Laches Protagoras Gorgias all in their different ways show the inade-quacies of a thumos-less psychology ndash whether an intellectualist one or onethat operates just with reason and desire the Gorgias leaves us with no ideaOcirchow reason and the desires are supposed to interrelateOtilde (157) Everything thenpoints towards the Republic27 which will supply the missing piece in theshape of the thumos and its necessary training made possible by its sensitiv-ity to kala and public opinion Once trained the thumos supplies Ocircthe appa-ratus needed to make transcendence [ie the victory of reason over the

desires and of morality over egoism] possibleOtilde (161) Callicles can be seenfor what he really is OcircthumoeidicOtilde like Thrasymachus Ocirc[t]he egoistic chal-lenge of the thumoeidic Thrasymachus thus leads Socrates in the same direc-tion as that prompted by the egoistic challenge of the thumoeidic Callicles It is only tting that the substantive psychology required to combat both char-acters makes explicit acknowledgement of that element of the psuch from which their challenges largely springOtilde (174) But in fact from the Apology onPlato has shown himself aware of the power of the role-model witness

SocratesOtilde calm Achilles standing his ground replacing the Achilles amok of the Iliad The theoretical grounds for the shift are provided (so Hobbs claimsin her penultimate chapter) by the proposed unication of the Beautiful andthe Good paralleled by the appropriation of the thumos for the goals of logos(OcircIf the thumos is directed towards the appropriate aesthetic kala it willend up promoting a moral kalon which is also the internalization of logosOtilde230) The book ends with a brief look at that educational failure Alcibiadesand a fast-forward to the (perhaps) different worlds of the Politicus and the

Laws

27 Cf KahnOtildes more general thesis in Plato and the Socratic Dialogue (1996) what with Harold Tarrant and Julia Annas too voting against ordinary forms of develop-mentalism can one detect a sea-change in the air (Cf also eg Trindade Santos inCasertano (ed) n 23 above)

BOOK NOTES 219



Plato and the Hero was in many ways a book waiting to be written onethat makes connections which now that Hobbs has made them look obvious(that is from the perspective that makes the ndash unformed ndash human psyche abattleground between different partsOcircmotivational setsOtilde and perhaps after allPlato really did always share that perspective in the way that Hobbs half-

suggests)28 In other words this is a(nother) useful book which ought to ndits way into a number of different debates So too Kathryn MorganOtildes Mythand Philosophy from the Presocratics to Plato29 Morgan begins by deningher approach as Ocircliterary rather than analytic (by analytic I mean a method

28 Compare however the rather more generous less reductively Aristotelian viewof OcircSocraticOtilde intellectualism that Taylor manages to derive from OcircearlyOtilde Plato (seeabove) if this is in the Laches or the Protagoras then we should need at least a

rather differently constructed argument for the thumos (And a week after putting Platoand the Hero down I go back to wondering whether it actually helps to see the thu-mos as part of what makes us human ndash despite anything Plato or Nietzsche Adleror Freud may say)

29 Kathryn Morgan Myth and Philosophy from the Presocratics to Plato Pp viii +313 Cambridge University Press Cambridge 2000 ISBN 0-521-62180-1 pound4000(hbk) Another rather different (and somewhat hybrid) book on Plato and myth isBrisson Luc Plato the Myth-Maker translated edited and with an introduction byGerard Naddaf (pp liii + 188 The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London

1998 ISBN 0-26-07518-4 $2750 (hbk)) What is translated is essentially the secondedition of Brisson Platon les mots et les mythes Comment et pourquoi Platon nommale mythe (ƒditions La Dcouverte Paris 1994) except that the bibliography has beenextended (with a French emphasis) and Ocirc[t]he rst part of the translation divergesfrom the French second edition It attempts to avoid the technical language at thebeginning of the French edition in order to reach out to those less specialized in theareaOtilde (p liv) Given the general nature and origins of Les mots (Ocircbased on papersgiven during Pierre Vidal-NaquetOtildes seminars at the ƒcole des Hautes ƒtudes enSciences Sociales Otilde) it is not clear whether that particular goal is achievable by

these particular means and the translatorOtildes introduction is rather complementary tothan explicative of BrissonOtildes text All in all though the volume contains a mass of material it is not clear for whom it is intended I suspect that most who might nd it useful would be able and might prefer to read the French original Other pieces of BrissonOtildes on Platonic myths are included in the newly published collection of hispieces on Plato (Luc Brisson Lectures de Platon (Bibliothque dOtildeHistoire de laPhilosophie nouv srie) Pp 272 Librairie Philosophique J Vrin Paris 2000 ISSN0249-7980 ISBN 2-7116-1455-7 150 F (pbk)) Among these pieces is one on the Politicus myth that McCabe criticises for having the cosmos going in the same direc-

tion in the ages of Cronos and Zeus (n 21 above) also a reworked version of a pair of anti-OcircesotericistOtilde pieces from 1993 Wilfried KŸhnOtildes new monograph also joins thelists against Ocircthe schools of TŸbingen and MilanOtilde (Wilfried KŸhn La n du Phdrede Platon Critique de la rhtorique et de lOtildecriture (Accademia Toscana di Scienzee Lettere OcircLa ColombariaOtilde Studi 186) Pp 137 Leo S Olschki Firenze 2000 ISBN88-222-4867-8 Lire 28000 (pbk)) claiming inter alia that the OcircesoteristsOtilde have been

220 BOOK NOTES



that breaks down a philosophical text into a series of logical arguments)Otilde (8)30

which is likely to be a more useful distinction than that between OcircliteraryOtilde andOcircphilosophicalOtilde ndash as her book amply demonstrates Morgan joins a long-stand-ing protest 31 against simplistic oppositions between myth (story ction) andlogos (rational account argument) and the treatments of philosophical myth-

making or story-telling to which this gives rise the honey on the cup treat-ment and the one that makes myth merely something that expresses what reason cannot32 Instead we are invited to envisage a Ocircdynamic interpenetration

too ready to take the end of the Phaedrus as a reection on the authorOtildes own pro-ductions and that SocratesOtilde real target ndash as the text shows ndash is the discourses of others (orators poets politicians) as for philosophical writing so I take KŸhn to saythis is treated merely as Ocircle reet ou la copieOtilde (121) of the dialectical process (OcirclOtildecri-

ture sur papyrus nOtildeintresse Socrate que dans la mesure o elle renvoie ˆ son prtenduarchtype la dialectique oraleOtilde (ibid)) Admitting that this type of criticism has beenaired before KŸhn aims especially to replace the end of the Phaedrus within its pro-per context ie within the argument second half of the dialogue as a whole (But mustnOtildet there be something self-referential even about the picture of a reformedknowledgeable rhetoric that precedes the target passage One can perhaps be broadlysympathetic to KŸhnOtildes strategy without wanting to accept that things and Plato arequite as straightforward as this eloquent and elegant polemic suggests) ndash From withinthe Ocircschool of MilanOtilde there is now Raffaella SantiOtildes Platone Hegel e la dialettica

(pp 300 Vita e Pensiero (Collana temi metasici e problemi del pensiero antico Studie testi 80) 2000 ISBN 88-343-0613-9 L38000 (pbk)) which includes a reproduc-tion of CA BrandisOtildes De perditis Aristotelis libris De ideis et De bono sive Philo-sophia (1823) OcircSi tratta [qui] della prima raccolta di testi concernenti le dottrine nonscritte di Platone tramandate dai discepoli eacute questa la fonte alla quale Hegel attinsele sue conoscenze in materiaOtilde (Giovanni Reale writing the Preface to Santi 13-14)(Anne M Wiles (OcircForms and predication in the later dialoguesOtilde in van Ophuijsen(ed) see below) sees the OcircsynopticOtilde approach of TŸbingen-Milan as the main andricher alternative to the OcircanalyticalOtilde Mitchell Miller (OcircDialectical education and PlatoOtildes

StatesmanOtilde in the same volume) is attracted by the idea that we can nd the OcircunwrittenteachingsOtilde in the dialogues see esp 223 n 6)

30 That elusive OcircanalyticOtilde category again cf n 22 above31 Of more recent examples see eg RGA Buxton (ed) From Myth to Reason

(1999) discussed by Mansfeld in Phronesis 45 (2000) 341-4 fty years back thereis Edelstein Journal of the History of Ideas 10 (1949) 463-81 (mentioned byMansfeld essentially developing the Ocircless radicalOtilde interpretation of the idea of philo-sophical myth-making described [by Rowe] at Buxton 265 which has myth ndash stillsomehow ndash making up for the limitations of reason) [I and my co-editor apologise

whole-heartedly for allowing the mis-spelling of Thomas JohansenOtildes name (asOcircJohanssonOtilde) to slip through on p 344 of the same set of Book Notes]

32 Morgan confesses to nding the second Ocircmore congenialOtilde (4) cf her own treat-ment of the OcircmiddleOtilde dialogues (see following n) according to which Ocirc[t]he philoso-pherOtildes devotion to dialectic renders him capable of an intuitive leap to a vision of the soul separated from its body and related to the whole The mythological vision is

BOOK NOTES 221



of myth and philosophyOtilde (5) Philosophers may attack the poets for their ctions but that ctional world remains an organic element in both the socialculture and (along with poetry herself) the literary context within which theyoperate Evidently then there is a lot of negotiation to be done and it willnot be surprising if there is fuzziness about just where the fault-line is if there

is one at all (Plato certainly does his best to bury it while also perpetuallyreferring to it) By the end of the book ndash which after a chapter on Ocirctheoret-ical issuesOtilde one on Ocircsome PresocraticsOtilde and another on Ocircthe sophistsOtilde devotesmost of its attention to OcircPlatonic mythOtilde33 ndash we have a complex picture of philosophical myth (or at any rate of Platonic myth) that allows us to see bothhow philosophy and story-telling might be combined and how philosophymight even need to tell stories

Elizabeth Pender in Images of Persons Unseen34 takes on part of an even

larger subject than Platonic myth Platonic metaphor as employed in the con-text of the gods and the soul The book begins properly with discussion of the concept of metaphor and its role in cognition then of PlatoOtildes ownreections on OcircimagesOtilde and on myths two chapters each are then accorded tothe gods and to soul The real usefulness of the book apart from its assem-bling of the material (also summarized in two appendixes) lies in its self-consciously theoretical approach which draws on a wide range of other treatments of metaphor and related phenomena If I remain unclear about

222 BOOK NOTES

a self-qualifying image of the truth expressed in narrative This intuitive understand-ing cannot stand by itself however it arose in the rst place from dialectic and must return to dialectic to ground itselfOtilde (242)

33 This part begins with two chapters discussing general issues and culminates ina chapter on Ocircmiddle periodOtilde myths (where OcircmiddleOtilde is deemed to include the Gorgiasas well as Phaedo Republic and Phaedrus) and one on myth in the late dialoguesThe division between OcircmiddleOtilde and OcirclateOtilde is one of the cornerstones of MorganOtildes treat-

ment ndash even despite her own argument OcircWe have seen that philosophical argumenta-tion can be called mythos in this [late] periodOtilde (282) yet p 194 has already noticed asimilar phenomenon in the (OcircmiddleOtilde) Phaedo (not to mention a related one in the ndash

presumably OcircearlyOtilde ndash Apology) To point this out is not ( just) pedantry since Morganappears to claim that Ocircthe use of mythos-vocabularyOtilde ndash in late dialogues like Timaeus ndashis one sign of a difference from the OcircmiddleOtilde period works while in both cases thereis a sense of Ocircthe dangers of philosophical overcondenceOtilde in the late dialogues ()it is a matter of Ocirccontinu[ing] to acknowledge that language is imperfect and our taskongoingOtilde whereas in the middle ones Ocircthis awareness was directed at the provision-

ality and metaphoric quality of our vision of the metaphysicalOtilde (281) But maybe Ihave misread Morgan here (and the contrast disappears from the Conclusion ten pageslater) in any case my main point is about the hold that the OcircmiddleOtildeOcirclateOtilde distinctionhas on us and Morgan is certainly no exception in this

34 Elizabeth E Pender Images of Persons Unseen PlatoOtildes Metaphors for the Godsand the Soul (International Plato Studies 11) Pp xi + 278 Academia Verlag Sankt Augustin 2000 ISBN 3-89665-006-8 8800 DM (hbk)



some aspects eg where OcircmetaphorsOtilde end and OcircmythsOtilde begin (ch 2 sectVI) Isuppose that this is not an unhealthy state to be in at the same time PenderOtildessystematic approach can sometimes end up understating ndash even while stating ndashthe slipperiness of her subject (Not so on the the distinction between themetaphorical and the literal to which she necessarily keeps returning) MorganOtildes

looser more suggestive style in this respect serves her in good stead but inany case PenderOtildes aims are different35

Still with myth and metaphor Donald Zeyl ndash in the ample introduction tothe self-standing edition of his translation of the Timaeus36 ndash takes a clear stand on the status of TimaeusOtilde Ocirclikely accountstoryOtilde it is simply implausi-ble to take the word eTHORNkAringw as giving support to a OcircmetaphoricalOtilde reading of the accountstory insofar as its chief function in the context is to warn usagainst expecting perfect consistency and accuracy and after all a metaphor-

ical account may be just as consistent and accurate as a literal one OcircProbably what Plato means is that within the constraints in which the story must betold something like this account is the most plausible one can hope for Theseconstraints ndash metaphysical epistemological and aesthetic ndash make conictingdemands The use of the word OgravelikelyOacute reects both the limitations (it is no more than likely) and the validity (it is no less than likely) of theaccountOtilde (xxxii-xxxiii)37 ZeylOtildes treatment of the main issues affecting theinterpretation of the dialogue is as a whole splendidly balanced (so also eg

on the OcircreceptacleOtilde passage 49A6-50A4) Anyone looking for an introductionto the Timaeus is hardly likely to nd a better one than this And for a his-tory of the reception of the Timaeus(-Critias) ndash to put modern interpretationsin some kind of perspective ndash one need look no further than Ada Neschke-HentschkeOtildes edited volume Le Time de PlatonPlatos Timaios38 The effect of this volume is partly the same as that of the three discussed at the start of the present set of Notes partly different the same in that it presents the

35 More OcircanalyticalOtilde on a OcircliteraryOtilde subject36 Plato Timaeus Translated with Introduction by Donald J Zeyl Pp xcv + 94

Hackett Indianapolis 2000 ISBN 0-87220-446-4 (pbk) 0-87220-447-2 (hbk) $1095(pbk) $2995 (hbk) The translation rst appeared in the Hackett Plato CompleteWorks 1997

37 ZeylOtildes position thus resembles MorganOtildes for Morgan the cosmology is Ocirca theo-retical mythos [because Ocircat best an approximationOtilde] which encompasses philosophicaldiscourse about the physical worldOtilde (278) Pender (a) talks standardly about Ocircthe cre-ation mythOtilde of the Timaeus (eg 100 101) but (b) like Zeyl (xxxi-xxxii) tends to

think of Plato as believing literally in a divine creator (116) while (c) having a quitenuanced view of the metaphors used to describe him and his activity (ch 3 sectIV)

38 Ada Neschke-Hentschke (ed) Le Time de Platon Contributions ˆ lOtildehistoire desa rception Platos Timaios BeitrŠge zu seiner Rezeptionsgeschichte (BibliothquePhilosophique de Louvain 53) Pp xliv + 348 ƒditions de LOtildeInstitut Suprieur dePhilosophie Louvain La Neuve ƒditions Peeters Louvain-Paris 2000 ISBN 90-429-0862-2 (Peeters Leuven) 2-87723-493-2 (Peeters France) pbk No price given

BOOK NOTES 223



modern reader with alternative interpretative strategies different in that it fre-quently suggests that these strategies are culturally or otherwise determinedand that ndash as Neschke suggests in her opening orientating essay ndash it may yet be possible to establish the original question the ancient text (was)intended to answer We wonOtildet need to read Proclus or Ficino or the Cam-

bridge Platonists or in order to understand Plato we need to read thembecause we need to understand the history of philosophy (which of courseisnOtildet to say that moderns themselves wonOtildet and shouldnOtildet use Plato or Aristotleor for their own philosophical purposes) This is Rezeptionsgeschichte of a more familiar kind and forms a nice complement or foil to the other39

The volume is a sequel to Neschke (ed) Images de Platon (1997)40 and likeit the fruit of a colloquium held in Lausanne41

Three of the best bits of Plato and Platonism edited by Johannes van

Ophuijsen42 are also on what came of Plato later John Rist reects on OcircMoralmotivation in Plato Plotinus Augustine and ourselvesOtilde and takes few hostages43

224 BOOK NOTES

39 For another small part of that history in relation to the Timaeus see alsoOcircTheophrastusOtilde De sensibus and PlatoOtildes TimaeusOtilde ch 4 of Han BaltussenOtildes Theophrastusagainst the Presocratics amp Plato (discussed by Keimpe Algra in the previous issue)

40 See Phronesis 44 (1999) 8241 Contents Introduction (Ada Neschke OcircDer platonische Timaios als Manifest der

platonischen DemiurgieOtilde Alexandre ƒtienne OcircLa rception du Time ˆ travers lessicles un survolOtilde) bibliography then Antiquit grecque (Mario Vegetti OcircDe caelo interram Il Timeo in Galeno ( De placitis quod animi)Otilde Dimitri Nikulin OcircPlotinus oneternityOtilde Jens Halfwassen OcircDer Demiurg seine Stellung in der Philosophie Platons undseine Deutung im antiken PlatonismusOtilde Alain Lernold OcircLa Divisio textus du Timedans lOtilde In Timaeum de Proclus (Sur la physique pythagoricienne du Time selon Proclus)Otilde)Antiquit latine (Enno Rudolph OcircDer neue Timaios OgravenachOacute CalcidiusOtilde Walter MeschOcircEwigkeit dei Boethius Ein Beitrag zur Rezeptionsgeschichte der TimaiosOtilde) MoyenAge et Renaissance (Znon Kaluza OcircLOtildeorganisation politique de la cit dans un com-

mentaire anonyme du Time de 1363Otilde Alexandre ƒtienne OcircEntre interprtation chr-tienne et interprtation noplatonicienne Marsile FicinOtilde Fosca Mariani Zini OcircLOtildeinquitudedes mondes Marulle lecteur de Platon et de LucrceOtilde) Epoques moderne et contem-poraine (Wolfgang Ršd OcircPlatonische und neuzeitliche KosmologieOtilde Jean-FranoisPradeau OcircLe pome politique de Platon Giuseppe Bartoli un lecteur moderne du rcit atlante (Time 17a-27b et Critias)Otilde Gabor Betegh OcircThe Timaeus of AN Whiteheadand AE TaylorOtilde Luc Brisson OcircLe rtradele des mathmatiques dans le Time selon lesinterprtations contemporainesOtilde Karen Gloy OcircPlatons Timaios und die GegenwartOtilde)

42 Ophuijsen Johannes M Van (ed) Plato and Platonism (Studies in Philosophy

and the History of Philosophy 33) Op 368 The Catholic University of AmericaPress Washington DC 1999 ISBN 0-8132-0910-2 (hbk) $6995

43 But at this point surely it is still a moot question where Ocircmoral motivationOtildecomes in in Plato Is it really his view or his SocratesOtilde that what we really want isto become OcircmorallyOtilde better people Griswold in the same volume offers a more cir-cumspect and more precise view (but then Rist is in primarily polemical mode) cfalso and especially McCabe above



Dominic OOtildeMeara discusses OcircNeoplatonist conceptions of the philosopher-kingOtildeand van Ophuijsen himself treats of OcircThe continuity of PlatoOtildes dialecticOtilde44 Theopening pages of his Introduction too have some useful things to say about continuities and discontinuities in Platonism Other high points are CharlesGriswoldOtildes OcircPlatonic liberalism self-perfection as a foundation of political

theoryOtilde and Fred MillerOtildes OcircPlato on the parts45 of the soulOtilde46

Next four books on or touching on so-called OcircSocraticOtilde dialogues Alexander TulinOtildes Dike Phonou47 includes a compelling third chapter on Euthyphro 3E7-5D7 and the case that Euthyphro is supposed to be bringing against his father

44 Accepting something like VlastosOtildes reconstruction of Ocircthe elenchusOtilde (see above)along the way the model is pervasive

45 Contrast Rist (with no cross-reference to Miller) OcircFirst Plato never refers [in the

Republic] to a tripartite soul Second PlatoOtildes usual word for the divisions of the soulin the Republic is not OgravepartsOacute but OgravekindsOacute But what are kinds of soul In brief theyare primarily lifestyles or potential selvesOtilde (266)

46 Also in the volume Druart (n 6 above) Wiles Miller (n 29 above) RE AllenOcircTwo arguments in PlatoOtildes ProtagorasOtilde (among other things opposing hedonism toOcirc[t]he Socratic viewOtilde 34) Ronna Burger OcircMaking new godsOtilde (on the Euthyphro) Kurt Pritzl OcircThe signicance of some structural features of PlatoOtildes CritoOtilde (OcircpretheoreticalagreementsOtilde and Aristotelian endoxa) Daryl McGowan Tress OcircRelations and inter-mediates in PlatoOtildes TimaeusOtilde Kenneth Dorter OcircThe clash of methodologies in PlatoOtildes

StatesmanOtilde (on hypothesis and division) and Stanley Rosen OcircThe problem of senseperception in PlatoOtildes PhilebusOtilde (mainly on 38C5-39C6) Another mainly unconnectedcollection of essays ndash though as in van Ophuijsen an index locorum is included ndash isMark L McPherran (ed) Recognition Remembrance Reality New Essays on PlatoOtildes Epistemology and Metaphysics Pp xi + 157 Academic Printing and Publishing KelownaBC Canada 1999 = Apeiron 324 ISSN 0003-6390 ISBN 0-920980-74-0 (hbk) 0-920980-75-9 (pbk) $6495 (hbk) $2495 (pbk)) The essays (or six of the eight) werepresented at the 4th Annual Arizona Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy PlatoOtildesEpistemology and Metaphysics beyond that the editor struggles to make connections

The list is Lloyd Gerson OcircKnowledge and being in the recollection argumentOtilde AsliGocer Ocirc Hesuchia a metaphysical principle in PlatoOtildes moral psychologyOtilde (hesuchialtngtechein is not to be conated with Ocircminding oneOtildes own businessOtilde) Mi-Kyoung MitziLee OcircThinking and perception in PlatoOtildes TheaetetusOtilde Mitchell Miller OcircFigure ratioform PlatoOtildes ve mathematical studiesOtilde Richard Patterson OcircForms fallacies and thepurposes of PlatoOtildes ParmenidesOtilde McPherran OcircAn argument Ogravetoo strangeOacute Parmenides134c4-e8Otilde Christopher Shields OcircThe logos of OgravelogosOacute the third denition of theTheaetetusOtilde (the arguments against this nal denition Ocircought not to dissuade its pro-ponentsOtilde (122 with reference to McDowell) Ocircthe aporia at the end seems some-

how hollowOtilde (123) why does Plato leave things like this) Nicholas Smith OcircImageseducation and paradox in PlatoOtildes RepublicOtilde (usefully raising the question to whichphase of education might Plato have supposed the Republic to belong ndash and offeringa highly plausible answer along with a useful perspective on the interpretation of thedialogue as a whole)

47 Alexander Tulin Dike Phonou The Right of Prosecution and Attic Homicide Pro-cedure (BeitrŠge zur Altertumskunde 76) Pp 135 BG Teubner Stuttgart und Leipzig

BOOK NOTES 225



a Ocirclegal impossibilityOtilde argues Tulin (chapters 1 and 2 on DracoOtildes code andon Ps-Demosthenes the prosecution has to be led by the agnate relatives or master of the victim) given the parallels previously noticed with Meletus vSocrates ndash Ocircthus Plato casts a stunning light on MeletusOtilde prosecution of Socrates through the prism of EuthyphroOtildes attack on his own father and by

highlighting the conceits that underlie EuthyphroOtildes [TulinOtildes emphasis] prose-cution Plato leads the reader with the surest of hands to doubt the equallyspecious claims of Meletus Otilde (99-100)48 Oded BalabanOtildes Plato and Prota-goras Truth and Relativism in Ancient Greek Philosophy49 sounds as if it isabout the Theaetetus but is actually a monograph on the Protagoras Thebook largely dees summary (despite the summary offered by the publisher)but in one way or another it covers most aspects of the dialogue and its con-text also discussing general principles of interpretation50 Mark JoyalOtildes The

Platonic Theages51 is an altogether different kettle of sh dealing judiciously with and nally (almost apologetically) dismissing the pretensions of the dia-logue to authenticity (the passage on the divine sign is counted as decisive131) it is about as full a treatment of the Theages as it could ever haveexpected to receive I cannot claim to have read every word of it but what Ihave read suggests that it is as a whole an admirably meticulous piece of scholarship which anyone using the Theages (and there are at least one or two who do) will have to take into account If it is not by Plato of course

then it becomes interesting as a reading of Plato and of Socrates ndash writtenJoyal opines after PlatoOtildes death and probably by a member of the Academy(and not one who was a Ocircthinker of the rst rankOtilde 132) To the volume Plato Euthydemus Lysis Charmides edited by Tom Robinson and Luc Brisson52 I

1996 [sent to Phronesis only in 2000] ISBN 3-519-07625-X (hbk) No price given48 On the Crito see now Josiah Ober OcircLiving freely as a slave of the law Notes

on why Sokrates lives in AthensOtilde in P Flensted-Jensen TH Nielsen L Rubinstein

(eds) Polis amp Politics Studies in Ancient Greek History presented to Mogens Herman Hansen on his Sixtieth Birthday August 20 2000 Pp 651 Museum Tusculanum PressUniversity of Copenhagen 2000 ISBN 87-7289-628-0 31500 DKK

49 Oded Balaban Plato and Protagoras Truth and Relativism in Ancient Greek Philosophy Pp xx + 343 Lexington Books Lanham MD 1999 ISBN 0-7391-0075-0 $7500 (hbk)

50 But ndash on the rst page of the Introduction ndash it is eg surely untrue to say that ProtagorasOtilde Great Speech Ocirchas been generally ignored or else dismissedOtilde nor does thepassage cited from Rutherford The Art of Plato [n 25 above] in any way support the

statement generally BalabanOtildes targets (see also Appendix B) are neither well chosennor well treated

51 Mark Joyal The Platonic Theages An Introduction Commentary and Critical Edition Pp 335 Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart 2000 ISBN 3-515-07230-6 (hbk) Noprice given

52 Thomas M Robinson Luc Brisson (eds) Plato Euthydemus Lysis Charmides Proceedings of the V Symposium Platonicum Selected Papers (International Plato Studies

226 BOOK NOTES



feel too close to be permitted detailed comment sufce it to say that it contains more than thirty separate mainly short pieces on the three target dialogues ndash too many to list individually but a greater simultaneous concen-tration of re-power of more different types than the dialogues in questionare likely to have experienced before or are likely to experience again Among

the papers that stick in one readerOtildes (and sometimes auditorOtildes) mind some inthe context of some of the themes of these Notes are Rosamond Kent Sprague OcircThe Euthydemus revisitedOtilde Roslyn Weiss OcircWhen winning is every-thing Socratic elenchus and Euthydemian eristicOtilde (some useful suggestionsabout when Socrates might argue fallaciously) Christopher Gill OcircProtrepticand dialectic in PlatoOtildes EuthydemusOtilde (the rst part on the Stoics and Socratesagain) Michel Narcy OcircLe Socrate du Lysis est-il un sophisteOtilde WilfriedKŸhn OcircLOtildeexamen de lOtildeamour intress ( Lysis 216c-220e)Otilde Harold Tarrant

OcircNaming Socratic interrogation in the CharmidesOtilde (a short but effective attackon Vlastos-style notions of Ocircthe elenchusOtilde see above passim) MatthiasBaltes OcircZum Status der Ideen in Platons frŸhdialogen Charmides Euthydemos LysisOtilde and Glen Lesses OcircSocratic friendship and Euthydemean goodsOtilde I ven-ture to propose that especially because of the brevity imposed on the contrib-utors this is a particularly suggestive collection

Plato and politics the little book Empire and the Ends of Politics editedby Susan Collins and Devin Stauffer53 juxtaposes PericlesOtilde funeral oration

with the Menexenus and comes up with some original questions about thelatter especially from a politicalhistorical point of view given that there arecertain aspects of the dialogue that seem to elude any form of interpretationit is probably less than a devastating objection to point out that as the edi-tors are in any case well aware what they make of it sits uneasily with PlatoOtildesapproaches to politics and political questions elsewhere The new Cambridgetranslation of the Republic54 which has a short but sparkling introduction byJohn Ferrari may well provide a solution to the problems that have I think

been felt by many about nding good English translations of what will nodoubt continue to be the most widely-read of PlatoOtildes dialogues55 Aleaacute

13) Pp 402 Academia Verlag Sankt Augustin 2000 ISBN 3-89665-143-9 11000DM (hbk)

53 PlatoOtildes Menexenus and PericlesOtilde Funeral Oration Empire and the Ends of Politics Translation introduction and notes (by) Susan Collins and Devin StaufferPp 54 Focus PublishingR Pullins Company 1999 (Focus Philosophical Library)

ISBN 0-941051-70-6 $696 (pbk)54 Plato The Republic edited by GRF [= John] Ferrari translated by Tom

Grifth Cambridge University Press Cambridge 2000 (Cambridge Texts in theHistory of Political Thought) Pp xlviii + 382 ISBN 0-521-48173-2 (hbk) 0-521-48443-X (pbk) pound795 (pbk)

55 So far at any rate I have found this new version ndash evidently the product of closecollaboration ndash standing up well certainly by comparison with most translations since

BOOK NOTES 227



HavlrsquoIumlek (ed) The Republic and the Laws of Plato56 contains the main con-tributions57 to the First Symposium Platonicum Pragense (1997) whichmarked the foundation of the Czech Plato Society this set of Proceedings willshortly be followed by those of the Second Symposium on the Phaedo JosepMonserrat MolasOtildes El polrsquotic de Platmdash58 in Catalan consists mainly in a kind

of running exposition of the Politicus with some introductory material andshort conclusion The longest paper in Francisco Lisi (ed) PlatoOtildes Laws and its Historical Signi cance59 is by Trevor Saunders on Ocirc Epieikeia Plato andthe controversial virtue of the GreeksOtilde epieikeia was to be the subject of hisnext book a project sadly terminated by his premature death The publisher

ShoreyOtildes On music in the Republic see Alessandro Pagliara OcircMusica e politica nella

speculazione platonica considerazioni intorno allOtildeethos del modo frigioOtilde in SYNAU- LecircA (SYNAULecircA Cultura musicale in Grecia e contatti mediterranei Annali dellOtilde-Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli Dipartimento di Studi del Mondo Classicoe del Mediterraneo Antico Sezione Filologico-Letteraria Quaderni 5 2000 Pp 320ISSN 1128-7217 (pbk) No price given) Several other pieces in the same collectionalso promise to throw light at least tangentially on music in Plato

56 Aleaacute HavlrsquoIumlek Filip Karfrsquok (eds) The Republic and the Laws of Plato (Proceed-ings of the First Symposium Platonicum Pragense) Pp 230 OIKOUMENH Praha1998 ISBN 80-86005-74-7 No price given

57 Norbert Blšssner OcircDialogautor und Dialoggur daggerberlegungen zum Status sokratis-cher Aussagen in der PoliteiaOtilde Theodor Ebert OcircSind Meinung und Wissen nach PlatonVermšgenOtilde Aleaacute HavlrsquoIumlek OcircDie Kritik Platons an Glaukons Auffassung des bestenStaates im V Buch der PoliteiaOtilde Karel Thein OcircThe foundation and decay of SocratesOtildebest city ( Republic VI 499b-c and Books VIII-IX)Otilde Milan MrDaggerz OcircDie Kritik anPlatons Politeia im II Buch von AristotelesOtilde Politik Otilde Francisco Lisi OcircDie Stellung der Nomoi in Platons Staatslehre ErwŠgungen zur Beziehung zwischen Nomoi und PoliteiaOtilde Dimitris Papadis OcircRegent und Gesetz in Platons Dialogen Politeia und NomoiOtildeAL Pierris OcircThe metaphysics of politics in the Politeia Politikos and Nomoi dialogue

groupOtilde TM Robinson OcircGender-differentiation and Platonic political theoryOtilde Jean-Franois Pradeau OcircLOtildeexgte ennuy Une introduction la lecture des Lois de PlatonOtildeLuc Brisson OcircVernunft Natur und Gesetz im zehnten Buch von Platons GestezenOtildeJulius Tomin OcircJoining the beginning to the endOtilde There are some implicitly linkingthemes of a general sort (and an index locorum)

58 Josep Monserrat Molas El polrsquotic de Platmdash La grˆcia de la mesura Pp xxiv +402 Barcelonesa dOtildeEdicions 1999 (Colleccimdash Realitats i Tensions 7) ISBN 84-86887-49-6 No price given It is pleasing to discover that a general knowledge of Romancelanguages appears sufcient for following ndash some ndash arguments in Catalan so far as I

have read and sampled the book it is for the most part synthetic in aim (readingPlato in the light of a catholic range of secondary literature) but I shall look forwardto returning to it in relation to particular sections of the Politicus

59 Francisco L Lisi PlatoOtildes Laws and its Historical Signi cance Selected Papersof the I International Congress on Ancient Thought Salamanca 1998 Pp 351 AcademiaVerlag Sankt Augustin 2001 ISBN 3-89665-115-3 DM 9800 (hbk)

228 BOOK NOTES



of the Lisi volume with the tireless support of Luc Brisson has also pro-duced the third edition of SaundersOtildes Bibliography on PlatoOtildes Laws60 in timefor the Sixth Symposium Platonicum61 itself on the Laws in August of this year The choice of the Laws as topic for the Symposium and for theSalamanca Congress of which the Lisi volume is the fruit helps mark the

proper emergence of the Laws ndash so long cherry-picked ndash as an object of sus-tained study in its own right that development in Platonic studies as every-body knows (but why not repeat it here) owes much to SaundersOtildes devotionto a work which most still nd hard to love The twenty papers in the Lisivolume are a mixed in length tone and subject but none the worse for thatthe volume as a whole will provide an invaluable collective overview of the Laws together with a sense of the status quaestionis on a number of issues62

The argument of Walter NewellOtildes Ruling Passion63 often seems to converge

with that of HobbsOtildes Plato and the Hero but has a rather different emphasisLike Hobbs Newell is centrally concerned with understanding PlatoOtildes con-cept of the thumos (he has a picture of rampant Achilles on the cover of thebook) and often his conclusions and HobbsOtildes echo one another even if statedin different styles (see eg p 139) But for Newell as I understand him and

60 Trevor J Saundersdagger and Luc Brisson Bibliography on PlatoOtildes Laws (third edi-

tion revised and completed with an additional bibliography on the Epinomis InternationalPlato Studies 12) Pp 141 Academia Verlag Sankt Augustin 2000 ISBN 3-89665-172-2 4800 DM (hbk)

61 Organized by the International Plato Society The Society has just launched itsown internet journal Plato edited by Christopher Gill (wwwexacukplato) Amongother things the rst issue of Plato includes a report by Alexander Becker andWolfgang Detel on a conference on Platonic epistemology held in September 2000 inFrankfurt that report in turn refers to an important chapter on this same subject inrelation to the Symposium in DetelOtildes Macht Moral Wissen ( Macht Moral Wissen

Foucault und die klassische Antike Pp 359 Suhrkamp Frankfurt am Main (SuhrkampTaschenbuch Wissenschaft 1362) 1998 ISBN 3-518-28962-4 2480 DM (pbk)) Sincemany Platonists unless students of Foucault are likely to miss this well-camouagedcontribution it is worth mentioning here but one should be warned that reading thischapter is likely to draw one (as I have been drawn) into reading the others ndash and thisis the weightiest Ocircpocket-bookOtilde I know

62 Conoscenti are likely to make rst for the pieces ndash on the political philosophyof the dialogue ndash by Chris Bobonich (OcircPlato and the birth of classical political phi-losophyOtilde) and Andr Laks (OcircIn what sense is the city of the Laws a second best oneOtilde)

or those on the reception of the Laws by John Dillon (Neoplatonists) and Ada Neschke(OcircLoi de la nature loi de la cit Le fondement transcendant de lOtildeordre politique dansles Lois de Platon et chez John LockeOtilde)

63 Walter R Newell Ruling Passion The Erotics of Statecraft in Platonic Political Philosophy Pp vi + 201 Rowman and Littleeld Lanham MD 2000 ISBN 0-8476-9726-6 (hbk) 0-8476-9727-4 (pbk) $7000 (hbk) $2495 (pbk)

BOOK NOTES 229



for his Plato (Socratic) reason is the problem as much as or more than thethumos OcircThus as I argue Socrates practices politics by cultivating friend-ships devoted to philosophy But we cannot presuppose that the rareedpolitics of this Socratic circle of friends is necessarily in harmony with theactual requirements of statesmanship and civic commitmentOtilde (192) Newellnds a Ocircdisjunction between reason and moralityOtilde in the Republic especiallyinsofar as the citizensOtilde possession of moral virtue depends on their educationie the education of their passions (and desires) Socratic rationalism rather has a tendency (as of course the Socrates of the Republic recognizes) to under-mine the effects of such education Philosophy and Ocirccivic virtueOtilde are in thissense opposed to one another Yet Ocirc[i]t is unlikely that Plato would have writ-ten thirty-ve dialogues to serve no purpose other than to demonstrate theimpossibility of philosophically guided civic virtue and a love of the noble

that might plausibly reconcile statesmanship with the desire for wisdomOtilde(194) (This is a fair example of NewellOtildes style I hope I am not to blame for nding here and elsewhere that it impedes rather than aids a clear understand-ing of his argument The other problem with the book in my estimation isthat as an account of Plato it does not establish a relationship with the texts ndashin play are mainly Gorgias Symposium and Republic ndash that is close enoughto enable it to be properly tested Centrally does Plato put the same valueNewell himself evidently does on Ocirccivic virtueOtilde as Newell describes it64 All

the same the book raises some important questions65)Finally two massive tomes ndash both emanating from and one actually pub-

lished by the CNRS in Paris two tomes which belong to no particular set of Notes and happen (I am delighted to say) to have found their way to meThe rst is the third volume of the invaluable Dictionnaire des philosophesantiques66 these volumes appear to sell so quickly that anyone wanting onehad better get on to it at once67 The other is Le Commentaire entre traditionet innovation68 an extraordinarily rich collection of forty contributions on the

64 Cf TarrantOtildes distinction between interpretation and doctrine (n 4 above)65 Not least about how a Socrates might t into any practicable city (cf n 22 above

on Gonzalez)66 Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques publi sous la direction de Richard Goulet

III dOtildeEcclos ˆ Juvnal Pp 1054 CNRS ƒditions Paris 2000 ISBN 2-271-05748-5 FF 560 (hbk) The admirable neutrality of the editorsOtilde conception of a OcircphilosopherOtildeis shown by the inclusion not only of Glaucon of Athens (Ocircmoins pntrant [sc le

charactre dans la Rpublique] quOtildeAdimanteOtilde but after all reportedly the author of dia-logues) but of Isocrates Xenophon despite all his modern detractors will evidentlyalso make it (into volume 6)

67 For lists of the names included in volumes I-III and full details of the volumesgo to httpcallimacvjfcnrsfrDPhADPhA_Mainhtml

68 Le commentaire entre tradition et innovation Actes du colloque international delOtildeInstitut des Traditions Textuelles Paris et Villejuif 22-25 septembre 1999 Publis sous

230 BOOK NOTES



origins and development of the commentary from classical antiquity to themiddle ages (Hidden in the middle is a piece by Richard Sorabji OcircIs the trueself an individual in the Platonist traditionOtilde We are back once again withhomoitradesis thetradei but in this case in the context of the evolution of a problem)

la direction de Marie-Odile Goulet-Caz avec la collaboration ditoriale de TizianoDorandi Richard Goulet Henri Hugonnard-Roche Alain Le Boullec Ezio Ornato Pp583 Librairie Philosophique J Vrin Paris (Bibliothque dOtildeHistoire de la Philosophienouvelle srie) 2000 ISSN 0249-7980 ISBN 2-7116-1445-X 295 F (pbk)

BOOK NOTES 231



emphasis using ancient perspectives ndash bolstered by additional arguments ndashdirectly to undermine modern assumptions5 contrasting ancient tendencies tounitarianism with modern OcircdevelopmentalismOtilde (ch 1) and especially the ideathat there is a fundamental shift of ethical position between the OcircSocraticOtilde ieOcircearlyOtilde dialogues and what comes after these (ch 2 even late on Plato is a

eudaimonist) exploring the ancient PlatonistsOtilde emphasis on the concept of Ocircbecoming like godOtilde which we moderns have tended to underplay (ch 3)6

continuing her attack on the treatment of the Republic as a mainly political work (ch 4) ndash among other things on the basis of AlcinousOtilde view that theOcircsufciency of virtueOtilde thesis is to be found Ocircparticularly in the whole of the RepublicOtilde (Annas 84) questioning the standard modern view of the differ-ence Platonic metaphysics (ie form theory) makes to Platonic ethics (ch 5ancient Platonists ndash Alcinous once more plays a prominent role ndash (a) are uni-

tarians (b) treat metaphysics separately from ethics and (c) nd agreement in much of Platonic ethics with the Stoa who emphatically rejected Platonic

questions with the Middle Platonists (in particular) as guides (Part I) to trace the his-tory of Plato interpretation down to the Neoplatonists (Part II) and nally to take acloser look at some ancient treatments of particular dialogues and groups of dialogues(Part III) ndash where the emphasis as in the book generally is on studying Ocircinterpreta-

tion largely as interpretation not as doctrineOtilde (214) and in the context of the corpusas a whole rather than of Ocirchigh proleOtilde dialogues (ibid) (OcircInterpreters acquire visionsvisions fuelled by but other than the texts that they interpret When the vision isimposed upon the text instead of teased out of it then interpretation proper gives wayto doctrineOtilde 213) The usefulness of our categories of OcircearlyOtilde and OcircmiddleOtilde dialogues(ch 8 ch 10) is one particular target other Ocircmeta-interpretativeOtilde conclusions are lesseasy to sort out from a somewhat dense presentation of an admittedly highly complexbody of material But there is no doubt that it is a useful book especially coming ndash

as it does ndash at a moment when some of our standard assumptions are already look-

ing distinctly less secure than they did5 So the argument is not that the ancients must have got things right just that as a

matter of fact they did (as one can see if one gets a proper view of the issues unham-pered by newly-manufactured baggage)

6 Cf David SedleyOtildes OcircThe ideal of godlikenessOtilde one of the new pieces in GailFineOtildes Plato 1 and 2 (see Phronesis 45 (2000) 172 [where Ocirc1 and 2Otilde became Ocirc I and II Otilde by a slip of the nger]) a piece which ndash as Annas herself recognizes ndash makes asimilar general point while developing it in a rather different way cf also Therse-Anne Druart OcircThe Timaeus revisitedOtilde in van Ophuijsen (ed) (see below) andKatharina Comoth Vom Grunde der Idee Konstellationen mit Platon (p 48UniversitŠtsverlag C Winter Heidelberg 2000 ISBN 3-8253-0999-1 DM 1700(pbk)) the rst piece in which brie y discusses Ocirc OgraveHomoiosisOacute bei Platon und OrigenesOtilde(originally published elsewhere) The two other tiny pieces ndash OcircDie Seele vom OgraveGesetzSelbstOacute Platons Nomoi in kosmologischer BedeutungOtilde given at the Salamanca con-gress on the Laws (see Lisi ed below) and OcircPerUuml tdegw currenn aecirctCcedili politeUcircaw dedintildetiPlaton Politeia 608b1Otilde ndash make some unexpected connections with visual symbols

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plato's translation in english 20thcentury commentary

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