Cambridge Companion to Plato

8/9/2019 Cambridge Companion to Plato

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ambridge ompanions Online

http://universitypublishingonline.org/cambridge/companions/

The Cambridge Companion to Plato

Edited by Richard Kraut

Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521430186

Online ISBN: 9781139000574

Hardback ISBN: 9780521430180

Paperback ISBN: 9780521436106

Chapter

Frontmatter pp. i-xiv

Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521430186.017

Cambridge University Press


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This is another vo lume in the new Cambridge series of com-

panions to major philosophers. Each volume will contain

specially commissioned essays by an international team of

scholars, together with a substantial bibliography, and will

serve as a reference work for students and nonspecialists.

One aim of the series is to dispel the intimidation such

readers often feel when faced with the work of a difficult and

challenging thinker.

Plato stands a t the head of our philosophical tradition, be-

ing the first Western thinker

to

produce

a

body of writing that

touches upon a wide range of topics still discussed by philoso-

phers today. In a sense he invented philosophy as a distinct

subject, for a lthough many of these topics were discussed by

his intellectual predecessors and contemporaries, he was the

first to bring them together by giving them a unitary treat-

ment. He conceives of philosophy as a discipline w ith a dis-

tinctive intellectual method, and he makes radical claims for

its position in hum an life and the political community. This

volume contains fifteen new essays discussing Plato's views

about know ledge, reality, mathem atics, politics, ethics, love,

poetry, and religion. There are also analyses of the intellec-

tual and social background of his thought, the development of

his philosophy throughout his career, the range of alternative

approaches to his work, and the stylometry of his writing.

New readers and nonspecialists will find this the most

convenient, accessible guide to Plato currently

available.

Ad-

vanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of

recent developments in the interpretation of Plato.

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T HE C A M B R I D G E C O M P A N I O N T O

PLATO




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The Cambridge Companion to

P L A T O

Edited by Richard K raut

University of Illinois at Ch icago

CAMBRIDGE

UNIVERSITY PRESS




7/17

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cam bridge, New York, Melbo urne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo

Cam bridge University Press

The Edinburgh Building, Camb ridge CB2 2RU, UK

Published in the United States of Am erica by Cam bridge Un iversity Press, New York

www.cambridge.org

Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/0521430186

© Cambridge University Press 1992

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing ag reemen ts,

no reproduction of any part may take place w ithout

the written permission of Cam bridge University Press.

First published 1992

Reprinted 1993 (twice), 1995, 1996 (twice), 1997,1999 (twice)

A catalogue record or this publication is available from the British Library

ISBN-10 0-521-43018-6 hardback

ISBN-10 0-521-43610-9 paperback

Transferred to digital printing 2005




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F OR GR EGOR Y V LA STOS

19 7 1991




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C O N T E N T S

List of contributors page ix

Chronology xii

Abbreviations

xiii

1 Introduction to the study

of

Plato

i

RICHARD KRAUT

2 Plato: The intel lectual background 51

T H IRWIN

3 Stylometry and chronology 90

LEONARD BRANDWOOD

4 Socrates and the early dialogues 121

TERRY PENNER

5 Mathematical method and phi losophical t ruth 170

IAN MUELLER

6 Inquiry in the Meno 200

GAIL FINE

7 Plato and Greek religion 227

MICHAEL L MORGAN

V l l




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vi i i Contents

8 Platonic love

248

G . R F F E R R A R I

9 Plato 's metaphysical epistemology 277

NICHOLAS P WHITE

10 The defense of justice in Plato 's

Republic

311

RICHARD KRAUT

11 Plato

on

poetic creativity

338

ELIZABETH ASMIS

12 Good-bye to the Third M an 365

CONSTANCE C MEINWALD

13 Plato's Sophist

on

false state m en ts

397

MICHAEL FREDE

14 Disintegration and restoration: Pleasure and pain

in Plato 's Philebus

425

DOROTHEA FREDE

15 Plato's later political thought 464

TREVOR J SAUNDERS

Bibliography 493

Index

of

names

and

subjects

531

Index

of

passages

541




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C O N T R I B U T O R S

E L I Z A B E T H A S M I S is A ssocia te Professor of Classics at the U niver-

sity of Chicago. The author of

Epicurus Scientific Method

(Cornell

Un iversity Press, 1984) and nu m ero us articles on He llenistic philoso-

phy, she is curr ently w orkin g on G reek views of poetry from Plato to

the Neoplatonists .

L E O N A R D B R A N D W O O D is Lecturer in the Department of Greek

and Latin at Manchester University. He is the author of

A Word

Index to Plato

(W.

S

M ane y Son, 1976) and

The Chronology of

Plato s Dialogues (Cambridge University Press, 1990).

G. R . F . F ER R AR I is A ssoc iate Professor of Classics at the Un iversity

of California, Berkeley. H e is the au tho r of Listening to the Cicadas:

A Study of Plato s Phaedrus

(Cambridge University Press, 1987) and

of articles on Plato, the pre-Socratics, and archaic Greek culture.

G A I L F I N E

is Professor of Ph ilosop hy at Corn ell Un iversity. he is the

autho r of nu m ero us a rticles on the m etaphy sics and epistemology of

Plato and Aristotle. Her book O n Ideas: Aristotle s Criticism of

Plato s T heory of Forms

is to be pub lished by Oxford U nive rsity Press.

D O R O T H E A F R E D E is Professor of Philosophy at the University of

Hamburg. She is the author of Aristoteles und die Seeschlacht

(Vandenhoeck Ru precht, 1970) and has w ritten num ero us articles

on Plato, Aristotle, later Greek philosophy, and the philosophy of

M artin Heidegger. Her tran slation of Plato's

Philebus

is forthcoming

(Hackett Publishing Company).

M I C H A E L F R E D E is Professor of the History of Philosophy at Oxford

U nive rsity an d Fellow of Keble College. H e is the au tho r of Prddika-

IX




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x Contributors

tion und Existenzaussage

(Vandenhoeck Ru prech t, 1967),

Die

stoische Logik (Vandenhoec k Ru prec ht, 1974), and (with Giinthe r

Patzig) a translation of and commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics

Z

(C.H. Beck, 1988). Some of his many papers on Plato, Aristotle,

Stoicism, Skepticism, ancient medicine, and ancient grammatical

theories have been collected in Essays in Ancient Philosophy (Uni-

versity of Minnesota Press and Oxford University Press, 1987).

T. H . 1 R W I N is Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University. He is

the author of

Plato s Moral Theory

(Clarendon Press, 1977),

Aris-

totle s First Principles

(Clarendon Press, 1988),

Classical Though t

(Oxford University Press, 1989), and translations of and commentar-

ies on Plato's Gorgias (Clarendon Press, 1979) and Aristotle's Nico-

machean Ethics (Hackett Publishing Company, 1985), as well as

numerous articles on Greek philosophy.

R I C H A R D K R A U T is Professor of Philosophy at the University of

Illinois at Chicag o. H e is the au tho r of Socrates and the State (Prince-

ton University Press, 1984) and

Aristotle on the Hum an Good

(Princeton University Press, 1989) and is currently writing a transla-

t ion of and com m enta ry on A ristot le 's Politics: Books VII and

VIII

C O N S T A N C E c . M E I N w A L D is A ssis tan t Professor of Philosoph y at

the U niversity of Illinois at C hicago. Th e autho r of

Plato s Parmen-

ides

(Oxford University Press, 1991), she is currently working on

Plato 's late m etaphy sics.

M I C H A E L L . M O R G A N is Professor of Philoso phy at Indiana U niver-

sity, Bloomington. He is the author of

Platonic Piety: Philosophy

and Ritual in Fourth-Cen tury Athens

(Yale U niv ers ity Press, 1990)

and has written numerous articles on Plato as well as on Jewish

thought.

I A N M U E L L E R is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chi-

cago.

He is the au tho r of Philosophy of Ma thematics and Deductive

Structure in Euclid s Elemen ts (MIT Press, 1981), as w ell as num er-

ous articles on ancie nt G reek philosophy, science, and m ath em atic s.

He is currently p reparing a transla tion of Alexander of A phrodisias's

commentary on Aristot le 's

Prior Analytics.

T E R R Y P E N N E R is Professor of Philosop hy a t the Un ivers ity of W is-

consin, Madison. He is the author of

The Ascent from Nom inalism:




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Contributors xi

Some Existence Argum ents in Plato s Middle D ialogues (D. Reidel

Publishing Company, 1987) and is currently at work on a sequel to

that volume,

Plato and the Philosophers of Language.

He is also

preparing a study of the philosophy of Socrates.

T R E V O R j . S A U N D E R S is Professor of Greek at the University of

Newcastle upon Tyne. He has produced three volumes in the Pen-

guin Classics series: a translation of Plato's Laws (1970), a revision

of T. A. Sinclair's translation of Aristotle's

Politics

(1981), and (as

contributing editor)

Plato, Early Socratic Dialogues

(1987). He has

written numerous articles on the political philosophy of Plato and

Aristotle, and his latest book is Plato s Penal C ode (Clarendon Press,

1991 .

N I C H O L A S P . W H I T E is Professor of Philoso phy at the Univ ersity

of

Michigan. He is the author of Plato on Know ledge and Reality

(Hackett Publishing Company, 1976), A Com panion to Plato s Re-

public

(Hackett Publishing Company, 1979), and numerous articles

on Plato, Aristotle, and Stoicism. He is also the translator of

Epictetus's

Handbook

(Ha cke tt Pu blishin g Com pany, 1983), and his

translation of Plato's Sophist is forthcoming (Hackett Publishing

Company).




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HRONOLO Y

Plato s life*

427: born

Plato s writings*

c

- 399~

c

- 387: composes

early dialogues: Ap.

Chrm. Cri. Euphr. H.

Mi. Ion La. Pit.-

Euthd

Gig.

H.

Ma. Lys.

Menex. Rep. I.

c. 387-c. 367: composes

middle dialogues: Meno

Cra. Phd. Smp. Rep. II-

X, Phdr. Prm. Tht.

Other events

431-404: Pelopponesian

War

399:

death of Socrates

384: birth of Aristotle

c

- 365-347: composes

late dialogues: TL Criti.

Sph.

Pol Phil Laws

367: Aristotle joins

Academy

387: first visit to Sicily;

makes contact with

Pythagorean

philosophers; founds

Academy upon his return

to Athens

367-365: second visit to

Sicily, upon death of

Dionysius I of Syracuse;

involvement in

Syracusan politics ,

described in Seventh

Letter

361:

third visit to Sicily,

described in Seventh

Letter

347: dies

*For further information, see Chapter i, notes i, 3, 24, and 25.

+

For further information, see Chapter i, notes 16-18, 20, 21, 25, 39, 57, and 61.

X l l




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A B B R E V I A T I O N S

I. A N C I E N T A U T H O R S

A R I S T O P H A N E S

Acharn. Acharnians

A R I S T O T L E

Ath.

Pol. Constitution of the Athenians

De An. De Anima

Met. Metaphysics

N.E. Nicomachean Ethics

Poet Poetics

Soph. El. De Sophisticis Elenchis

Top. Topics

I S O C R A T E S

Antid Antidosis

Panath. Panathenaicus

O L Y M P I O D O R U S

Prol

Anonymous Prolegomena to the Philosophy o

Plato

PLATO

Ale.

Ap.

Chrm.

Cleit

Cra.

Cri.

Criti.

Alcibiades

Apology

Charmides

Cleitophon

Cratylus

Crito

Critias

X l l l




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X IV

Abbreviations

Epin.

Epist

Euphr

Euthd

Grg.

H. Ma.

H. Mi.

La.

Lys.

Menex.

Phd.

Phdr

Phil

Pol.

Prm.

Pit.

Rep.

Smp.

Sph.

Theag

Tht.

Ti.

Epinomis

Epistles (Letters)

Euthyphro

Euthydemus

Gorgias

Hippias Major

Hippias Minor

Laches

Lysis

Menexenus

Phaedo

Phaedrus

Philebus

Politicus (Statesman)

Parmenides

Protagoras

Republic

Symposium

Sophist

Theages

Theaetetus

Timaeus

S E X T U S E M P I R I C U S

A.M. Adversus Mathematicos

II. M O D E R N T E X TS

D.K.

O T

H. Diels and W. Kranz,

Die Fragmente der

Vorsokratiker, Seventh edition, 1954

Oxford Classical Texts

Cambridge Companion to Plato

Documents

Transcript of Cambridge Companion to Plato