Saturday, March 30, 2013

Plato: Essential Dialogues of Plato

Western philosophy starts with Socrates and his student Plato. By way of the dialectic that evolved between master and student, Plato invented the philosophical method of inquiry and analysis, and became the first to use a logical framework to ask - and try to answer - the eternal questions about ethics, politics, art, and life that still haunt humanity: What is virtue? What is justice? What is the ideal form of government? What is the individual's relationship to the state? Do artists have a responsibility to society, or only to their own creative impulse? Plato explores these issues through a series of dialogues, records of supposed conversations between Socrates and other Greek aristocrats.
 What is often ignored in commentaries on Plato's work is its unique literary form. The dialogues are neither dramas nor stories, yet they are skillfully fashioned by means of characters, narrative events, dramatic moments, and perhaps most surprising, a great deal of humor. Along with such exemplar of Plato's thought as Symposium, Apology, and Phaedrus, this volume includes the first three books of Plato's Laws.

 I'm not sure if people realize this...but Plato was one sassy dude. There were multiple times when reading these dialogues that I said, out loud to a room full of people, "Oh, snap!" The best part is, he was being a total asshole but couched his words in super complimentary language. Everybody knew he was being sarcastic, of course. I mean, when you're Socrates and you're renowned for your wisdom and you're expounding on how much smarter than you is your interlocutor, and you simply can't understand what he's saying because you are so much lower than he is (even though you just forced him to contradict himself) - you know you're being out-sassed.
 I should clarify what's going on in these dialogues: they are related as a series of conversations between Socrates and other people. Socrates was Plato's mentor/teacher and Plato is mentioned a grand total of twice in the dialogues presented in this volume, and he never speaks himself. However, since Socrates' philosophy was never written down, they're kind of Plato's tribute to and explanation of Socrates. So when I say that Socrates is speaking - kind of.
 Topics here range from what is righteousness and bravery to what are laws and their purpose and how they're useful.
 I do have some complaints, though. First of all - a lot of the reasoning is kind of...off. As in, one thing does not necessarily follow another. Or Socrates' conclusions are not absolute truths and so, when he takes them for absolute truth and bases the rest of his argument off that point, you can't exactly say that he's right. Often, the arguments also get convoluted as the debaters go on tangents and then circle back when Socrates has somehow disproved their first statements.
 For all that, the dialogues are interesting and sometimes, frankly, downright funny. They are also the basis for philosophical thinking in modern society, so even if you don't agree with the conclusions, it still might be pertinent and even interesting to read through these dialogues. You're not going to win any arguments with them, but...
 Overall: B
 Although again I find myself confronted with the dilemma of how to rate a classic...
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)