Plato's world

Joseph Cropsey examines the crucial relationship between Plato's conception of the nature of the universe and his moral and political thought. Cropsey interprets seven of Plato's dialogues - Theaetetus, Sophist, Euthyphro, Statesman, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo - in light of their dramatic consecutiveness and thus as a conceptual and dramatic whole. The cosmos depicted by Plato in these dialogues, Cropsey argues, is affected with unreason, populated by human beings unaided by gods and dealt with equivocally by nature. Masterfully leading the reader through the seven scenes of the drama, Cropsey shows how they are, to an astonishing degree, concerned with the resources available to help us survive in such a world.

First sentence: THIS BOOK IS AN INQUIRY INTO THE CONSEQUENCES OF ONE EVIdent fact, namely, that Plato dates Theaetetus in the life of Socrates by concluding that dialogue with Socrates' announcement that he is leaving his companions so that he may go to the place of the judicial officer of Athens, hence to what proves to be the scene of Euthyphro.

Year

1995

Language

English

Publisher

University Of Chicago Press

Editions

1

Pages

238

ISBN

9780226121222

Data source: Wikidata