{"product_id":"the-dialogues-of-plato-isbn-9780553213713","title":"The Dialogues of Plato","description":"Socrates’ ancient words are still true, and the ideas found 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 and execution of Socrates–the extraordinary tragedy that changed Plato’s life and forever altered the course of Western thought. Other dialogues create a rich tableau of intellectual life in Athens in the fourth century b.c., and examine such timeless–and timely–issues as 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.Plato, with Socrates and Aristotle, is the founder of the Western intellectual tradition.  Like his mentor Socrates, he was essentially a practical philosopher who found the abstract theory and visionary schemes of many contemporary thinkers misguided and sterile.  He was born about 429 B.C. in Athens, the son of a prominent family that had long been involved in the city's politics.  Extremely little survives of the history of Plato's youth, but he was raised in the shadow of the great Peloponnesian War, and its influence must have caused him to reject the political career open to him and to become a follower of the brilliantly unorthodox Socrates, the self-proclaimed \"gadfly\" of Athens.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSocrates' death in 399 B.C. turned Plato forever from politics, and in the next decade he wrote his first dialogues, among them Apology and Euthyphro.  At age forty, Plato visited Italy and Syracuse, and upon his return he founded the Academy-Europe's first university-in a sacred park on the outskirts of Athens.  The Academy survived for a millennium, finally closed by the emperor Justinian in A.D. 529.  Plato hoped his school would train its pupils to carry out a life of service and to investigate questions of science and mathematics.  Plato's old age was probably devoted to teaching and writing, he died in Athens in 348 B.C.APOLOGY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e       Translated by Benjamin Jowett\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e       How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell; but  I know that they almost made me forget who I was--so persuasively did they  speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth. But of the many  falsehoods told by them, there was one which quite amazed me;--I mean when  they said that you should be upon your guard and not allow yourselves to be  deceived by the force of my eloquence. To say this, when they were certain  to be detected as soon as I opened my lips and proved myself to be anything  but a great speaker, did indeed appear to me most shameless--unless by the  force of eloquence they mean the force of truth; for if such is their  meaning, I admit that I am eloquent. But in how different a way from theirs!  Well, as I was saying, they have scarcely spoken the truth at all; but from  me you shall hear the whole truth: not, however, delivered after their  manner in a set oration duly ornamented with words and phrases. No, by  heaven! but I shall use the words and arguments which occur to me at the  moment; for I am confident in the justice of my cause:1 at my time of life I  ought not to be appearing before you, O men of Athens, in the character of a  juvenile orator--let no one expect it of me. And I must beg of you to grant  me a favor:--If I defend myself in my accustomed manner, and you hear me  using the words which I have been in the habit of using in the agora, at the  tables of the money-changers, or anywhere else, I would ask you not to be  surprised, and not to interrupt me on this account. For I am more than  seventy years of age, and appearing now for the first time in a court of  law, I am quite a stranger to the language of the place; and therefore I  would have you regard me as if I were really a stranger, whom you would  excuse if he spoke in his native tongue, and after the fashion of his  country:--Am I making an unfair request of you? Never mind the manner, which  may or may not be good; but think only of the truth of my words, and give  heed to that: let the speaker speak truly and the judge decide justly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    And first, I have to reply to the older charges and to my first accusers,  and then I will go on to the later ones. For of old I have had many  accusers, who have accused me falsely to you during many years; and I am  more afraid of them than of Anytus and his associates, who are dangerous,  too, in their own way. But far more dangerous are the others, who began when  you were children, and took possession of your minds with their falsehoods,  telling of one Socrates, a wise man, who speculated about the heaven above,  and searched into the earth beneath, and made the worse appear the better  cause. The disseminators of this tale are the accusers whom I dread; for  their hearers are apt to fancy that such enquirers do not believe in the  existence of the gods. And they are many, and their charges against me are  of ancient date, and they were made by them in the days when you were more  impressible than you are now--in childhood, or it may have been in  youth--and the cause when heard went by default, for there was none to  answer. And hardest of all, I do not know and cannot tell the names of my  accusers; unless in the chance case of a comic poet. All who from envy and  malice have persuaded you--some of them having first convinced  themselves--all this class of men are most difficult to deal with; for I  cannot have them up here, and cross-examine them, and therefore I must  simply fight with shadows in my own defense, and argue when there is no one  who answers. I will ask you then to assume with me, as I was saying, that my  opponents are of two kinds; one recent, the other ancient: and I hope that  you will see the propriety of my answering the latter first, for these  accusations you heard long before the others, and much oftener.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Well, then, I must make my defense, and endeavor to clear away in a short  time, a slander which has lasted a long time. May I succeed, if to succeed  be for my good and yours, or likely to avail me in my cause. The task is not  an easy one; I quite understand the nature of it. And so leaving the event  with God, in obedience to the law I will now make my defense.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    I will begin at the beginning, and ask what is the accusation which has  given rise to the slander of me, and in fact has encouraged Meletus to  prefer this charge against me. Well, what do the slanderers say? They shall  be my prosecutors, and I will sum up their words in an affidavit: \"Socrates  is an evildoer, and a curious person, who searches into things under the  earth and in heaven, and he makes the worse appear the better cause; and he  teaches the aforesaid doctrines to others.\" Such is the nature of the  accusation: it is just what you have yourselves seen in the comedy of  Aristophanes,2 who has introduced a man whom he calls Socrates, going about  and saying that he walks in air, and talking a deal of nonsense concerning  matters of which I do not pretend to know either much or little--not that I  mean to speak disparagingly of any one who is a student of natural  philosophy. I should be very sorry if Meletus could bring so grave a charge  against me. But the simple truth is, O Athenians, that I have nothing to do  with physical speculations. Very many of those here present are witnesses to  the truth of this, and to them I appeal. Speak then, you who have heard me,  and tell your neighbors whether any of you have ever known me hold forth in  few words or in many upon such matters. . . . You hear their answer. And  from what they say of this part of the charge you will be able to judge of  the truth of the rest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    As little foundation is there for the report that I am a teacher, and take  money; this accusation has no more truth in it than the other. Although, if  a man were really able to instruct mankind, to receive money for giving  instruction would, in my opinion, be an honor to him. There is Gorgias of  Leontium, and Prodicus of Ceos, and Hippias of Elis, who go the round of the  cities, and are able to persuade the young men to leave their own citizens  by whom they might be taught for nothing, and come to them whom they not  only pay, but are thankful if they may be allowed to pay them. There is at  this time a Parian philosopher residing in Athens, of whom I have heard; and  I came to hear of him in this way:--I came across a man who has spent a  world of money on the Sophists, Callias, the son of Hipponicus, and knowing  that he had sons, I asked him: \"Callias,\" I said, \"if your two sons were  foals or calves, there would be no difficulty in finding some one to put  over them; we should hire a trainer of horses, or a farmer, probably, who  would improve and perfect them in their own proper virtue and excellence;  but as they are human beings, whom are you thinking of placing over them? Is  there any one who understands human and political virtue? You must have  thought about the matter, for you have sons; is there any one?\" \"There is,\"  he said. \"Who is he?\" said I; \"and of what country? and what does he  charge?\" \"Evenus the Parian,\" he replied; \"he is the man, and his charge is  five minae.\" Happy is Evenus, I said to myself, if he really has this  wisdom, and teaches at such a moderate charge. Had I the same, I should have  been very proud and conceited; but the truth is that I have no knowledge of  the kind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    I dare say, Athenians, that some one among you will reply, \"Yes, Socrates,  but what is the origin of these accusations which are brought against you;  there must have been something strange which you have been doing? All these  rumors and this talk about you would never have arisen if you had been like  other men: tell us, then, what is the cause of them, for we should be sorry  to judge hastily of you.\" Now, I regard this as a fair challenge, and I will  endeavor to explain to you the reason why I am called wise and have such an  evil fame. Please to attend then. And although some of you may think that I  am joking, I declare that I will tell you the entire truth. Men of Athens,  this reputation of mine has come of a certain sort of wisdom which I  possess. If you ask me what kind of wisdom, I reply, wisdom such as may  perhaps be attained by man, for to that extent I am inclined to believe that  I am wise; whereas the persons of whom I was speaking have a superhuman  wisdom, which I may fail to describe, because I have it not myself; and he  who says that I have, speaks falsely, and is taking away my character. And  here, O men of Athens, I must beg you not to interrupt me, even if I seem to  say something extravagant. For the word which I will speak is not mine. I  will refer you to a witness who is worthy of credit; that witness shall be  the god of Delphi--he will tell you about my wisdom, if I have any, and of  what sort it is. You must have known Chaerephon; he was early a friend of  mine, and also a friend of yours, for he shared in the recent exile of the  people, and returned with you. Well, Chaerephon, as you know, was very  impetuous in all his doings, and he went to Delphi and boldly asked the  oracle to tell him whether--as I was saying, I must beg you not to  interrupt--he asked the oracle to tell him whether any one was wiser than I  was, and the Pythian prophetess answered, that there was no man wiser.  Chaerephon is dead himself; but his brother, who is in court, will confirm  the truth of what I am saying.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Why do I mention this? Because I am going to explain to you why I have such  an evil name. When I heard the answer, I said to myself, What can the god  mean? and what is the interpretation of his riddle? for I know that I have  no wisdom, small or great. What then can he mean when he says that I am the  wisest of men? And yet he is a god, and cannot lie; that would be against  his nature. After long consideration, I thought of a method of trying the  question. I reflected that if I could only find a man wiser than myself,  then I might go to the god with a refutation in my hand. I should say to  him, \"Here is a man who is wiser than I am; but you said that I was the  wisest.\" Accordingly I went to one who had the reputation of wisdom, and  observed him--his name I need not mention; he was a politician whom I  selected for examination--and the result was as follows: When I began to  talk with him, I could not help thinking that he was not really wise,  although he was thought wise by many, and still wiser by himself; and  thereupon I tried to explain to him that he thought himself wise, but was  not really wise; and the consequence was that he hated me, and his enmity  was shared by several who were present and heard me. So I left him, saying  to myself, as I went away: Well, although I do not suppose that either of us  knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is,--for  he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I neither know nor think that I  know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the advantage  of him. Then I went to another who had still higher pretensions to wisdom,  and my conclusion was exactly the same. Whereupon I made another enemy of  him, and of many others besides him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Then I went to one man after another, being not unconscious of the enmity  which I provoked, and I lamented and feared this: but necessity was laid  upon me,--the word of God, I thought, ought to be considered first. And I  said to myself, Go I must to all who appear to know, and find out the  meaning of the oracle. And I swear to you, Athenians, by the dog I  swear!--for I must tell you the truth--the result of my mission was just  this: I found that the men most in repute were all but the most foolish; and  that others less esteemed were really wiser and better. I will tell you the  tale of my wanderings and of the \"Herculean\" labors, as I may call them,  which I endured only to find at last the oracle irrefutable. After the  politicians, I went to the poets; tragic, dithyrambic, and all sorts. And  there, I said to myself, you will be instantly detected; now you will find  out that you are more ignorant than they are. Accordingly I took them some  of the most elaborate passages in their own writings, and asked what was the  meaning of them--thinking that they would teach me something. Will you  believe me? I am almost ashamed to confess the truth, but I must say that  there is hardly a person present who would not have talked better about  their poetry than they did themselves. Then I knew that not by wisdom do  poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like  diviners or soothsayers who also say many fine things, but do not understand  the meaning of them. The poets appeared to me to be much in the same case;  and I further observed that upon the strength of their poetry they believed  themselves to be the wisest of men in other things in which they were not  wise. So I departed, conceiving myself to be superior to them for the same  reason that I was superior to the politicians.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    At last I went to the artisans. I was conscious that I knew nothing at all,  as I may say, and I was sure that they knew many fine things; and here I was  not mistaken, for they did know many things of which I was ignorant, and in  this they certainly were wiser than I was. But I observed that even the good  artisans fell into the same error as the poets;--because they were good  workmen they thought that they also knew all sorts of high matters, and this  defect in them overshadowed their wisdom; and therefore I asked myself on  behalf of the oracle, whether I would like to be as I was, neither having  their knowledge nor their ignorance, or like them in both; and I made answer  to myself and to the oracle that I was better off as I was.","brand":"Bantam Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300472639717,"sku":"NP9780553213713","price":7.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780553213713.jpg?v=1767739011","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-dialogues-of-plato-isbn-9780553213713","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}