Customer Reviews

Plato Complete Works

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If you are at all inclined to get all of Plato in one volume then you are well advised to get this volume, for lack of viable alternatives.

The translations are a mixed bag. Cooper had little choice except to take over Grube's translations which inaugurated Hackett editions of Plato. While Grube delivers idiomatic English, he's inaccurate on so many key points that he will simply lead you into dead corners. (Instructurs should seriously avoid him in classroom use. There are worthwhile Penguin volumes of "Euthyphro" and "Republic".)

That said, there are real gems in this collection: Burnyeat's "Theaetetus", Frede's "Philebus", Gill's "Parmenides", Zeyl's "Timaeus", Reeve's "Cratylus", Rowe's "Stateman". But if you are a real fan of (any of) those, you should seriously consider getting the individual volumes (also by Hackett) with their substantial introductions (all of them highly recommended) woefully if understandably omitted from this volume. (Why can't there by a Norton Plato? 3000 pages with all of the individual Hackett's... I know, the market.)

Apart from this alternative (or complementation), you should also consider getting or borrowing items of the Clarendon Plato series: Gallop's "Phaedo", McDowell's "Theaetetus", Irwin's "Gorgias", and Taylor's "Protagoras" - philosophical commentaries and translations which have no superior (not so happy on Gallop, but you'll have to avoid Grube's "Phaedo" anyway).

A final comment. If you are new to Plato, Cooper's volume can be a pleasure to start with. Begin with the first "Alcibiades" and the "Symposium" (both beautifully translated here) and then read Cooper's wonderful introduction to the volume. I very much doubt you'll ever live life without Plato afterwards.

This is the best translation of Plato in English. First and foremost, it is the first and only COMPLETE English translation of Plato's works in the 20th century. All other anthologies have left out some works. Second, the individual translations are of high quality (some of the translations in other anthologies are a bit creaky). Third, the introduction and notes are extremely useful. This book is a godsend to me, since I teach courses on Plato and now no longer have to rely on previous, seriously flawed anthologies. This translation of Plato will be the definitive one for some time to come. It supersedes all other editions.

John M. Cooper's "Comlete Works of Plato" is the best single volume anthology of Plato around. Shrouded within the eighteen hundred pages of this book lie many treasures of abundant proportions.

This edition for the first time exposes these new translations: Cratylus, Alcibiades, Second Alcibiades, Hipparchus, Rival Lovers, Theages, Lesser Hippias, Menexemus, Clitiphon, Timaeus, Critias, Minos, Epinomis, Definitions, On Justice, On Virtue, Demodocus, Sisyphus, Halcyon, and Eryxias.

Also the introduction makes accessible techniques while reading Plato to give a more profound sense of the dialouges in order to distinguish Plato's ideas as a whole. Another point of interest is the section on definitions, which is a dictionary of 185 important philosophical terms that developed throughout the Socratic era. I am very happy to have purchased this volume and I hope you find the same joy in buying it for yourself.

Usually I don't have a head for collected works: I had much more fun reading Hamlet in a slim, single volume than I would've in the clumsy Riverside Shakespeare. This book is an exception. It is absolutely wonderful to have the world of Plato at one's fingertips; to flip through the dialogues and letters and definitions and just take in a few pages, perhaps going back and reading one entire if one finds it at all interesting.

About Plato as a philosopher, it's hard to write a review. I used to be one of the many students to hate Plato; not anymore. My thinking is, The Republic shouldn't be read until a fair amount of other works are read. Plato just says too many neat things--all of them more than make up for the sometimes-doubtful though sometimes quite interesting philosophy of the Republic. Example: "Time is a moving image of eternity." (I paraphrase here...) That's from Timaeus. Now those are the words of a true mystic in touch with the grandness of the universe--not the seeming fascist who wrote The Laws.

In order to read Plato, you've just got to focus on all the good stuff the man wrote. When you do this, the seemingly beastly stuff will make more sense--though you may not agree with it.

I hasten to add that The Symposium is a much better place to start than The Republic. If you are new to Plato, read this first--and delight: Here is a work both profound, funny, and sexy, just like some of our own century's better literature (Proust, Joyce).

I am not a classical scholar, just a person that is interested in people and trying to learn about the world around me. I read the Histories, the Pelopponesian Wars and I believe I am getting some idea of the world of the time. I knew I could not really understand the influence the Greeks had on subsequent civilizations without digging into Plato.

So, I looked around and found this book, which is more that 1,000 pages. It has different translators and he says that he is trying to make Plato as alive for the 21st Century as he has been for the last 24 centuries. That sounded promising. I took it home and wondered if I should read it like a novel or just hit the high points. I had no idea what was what.

Fortunately, the introduction to this book proved to be a wonderful road map to the volume, with insight on how to read it. I have found that following the guidence the book is actually fun. As an adult, I have heard so many of the issues reaised throughout my life, it is pretty cool to have them reduced to their essence.

We all know that everyone should read Plato and he is the most important philosopher and all that, but there's a lot of stuff I "should" read that is too tedious. This book turned out to be compelling and once I got started something I wanted to read and not just something I was reading because I "should".

Here is what you get:

CONTENTS:

Introduction (John M. Cooper)

Editorial Notes (Editors)

Acknowledgments (Editors)

Euthyphro

Apology

Crito

Phaedo

Cratylus

Theaetetus

Sophist

Statesman

Parmenides

Philebus

Symposium

Phaedrus

Alcibiades** #

Second Alcibiades* #

Hipparchus* #

Rival Lovers* #

Theages* #

Charmides

Laches

Lysis

Euthydemus

Protagoras

Gorgias

Meno

Greater Hippias**

Lesser Hippias

Ion

Menexenus

Clitophon** #

Republic

Timaeus

Critias

Minos* #

Laws

Epinomis*

Letters***

Definitions* #

On Justice* #

On Virtue* #

Demodocus* #

Sisyphus* #

Halcyon* #

Eryxias* #

Axiochus* #

Epigrams*** #

Index

* It is generally agreed by scholars that Plato is not the author of this work.

** It is not generally agreed by scholars that Plato is the author of this work

*** The likelihood of Plato's authorship of the individual letters and epigrams varies from item to item.

# Not included in "Plato: The Collected Dialogues", edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns.

As others have noted, this collection is easily preferable to the older "Plato: The Collected Dialogues", edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. The translations in this collection are more modern, the introductions are smarter (if not longer), the footnotes identifying people, places and events more numerous, and many more of the works of uncertain authenticity are included, which have historical significance if nothing else.

With regard to the introductions to the individual dialogues in this collection, don't get too excited. They are short (typically a page), sometimes prone to hasty conclusions about deep questions, and generally don't tell you much that a quick read of the dialogue wouldn't. Summarizing Plato is in any case a hopeless enterprise. The dialogues are literary as well as philosophical works. They have multiple layers of meaning, and different interpretive perspectives can give very different readings on many passages.

To Cooper's credit, he notes the diversity of ways in which Plato is read in his introduction to the collection as a whole, and does what he reasonably can to caution the reader against over-quick and superficial pronouncements on each dialogue's meaning.

Where this collection, in comparison to the Hamilton collection, gets dinged is for its index.

Here, for example, is the index entry for "habit" from this collection:

habit: L. 2.655e, 4.708c, 7.792e, 7.794e; R. 7.518e, 10.619c.

And here is the entry from the Hamilton collection:

habit: in education of infants, Laws 7.792e, force of, ib. 4.708c; and nature, ib. 7.794e; and temperament, ib. 2.655e; and virtue, Rep. 7.518e, 10.619c

Still, unless you have some pressing need to get the Hamilton collection (such as a class assignment, or its use as a reference by some other work you're reading), this is the one to get. Of course, if you feel really distressed about the Cooper index, or just want a second translation for comparison, you could always get both.

This is the most up-to-date and complete translation of Plato's work available. In an attempt to express some higher notion of Being or Greekness, many of the older translations are abosolutely horrible. They read worse than the King James version of the Bible. I cannot stress how important fresh translations are. Believe it or not, THEY MAKE THE TEXT. If you don't believe me, find a cheap thrift edition of any dialogue published in the 70s and compare it to this book - the difference will baffle you.

This edition has the further virtue of containing many apocraphal dialogues that Plato may or may not have written: including the Minos, Epinomis, Demodocus, Eryxias, and Axiochus. Most rigorous Plato scholars now deny that these dialogues were written by Plato, but they are nevertheless Socratic in form or style. And regardless of who wrote them, they are valuable expositions on Truth, Beauty and Goodness in their own right. Thus, the editor been conveniently added them.

Moreover, this edition has good introductions. I am not a big fan of introductions that dabble in exegetical interpretation, as most readers would rather form their own interpretations and opinions. However, when introductions attempt to contextualize the text, explain the translation, or locate the text historically, they can be helpful. Cooper's introductions are just that. They clarify translation issues that might concern a serious Plato scholar who never learned Ancient Greek. (I tried and quit.) For an example of what you don't want in a Plato introduction, see The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Editor Edith Hamilton's introductions might well have been written by a martian.

As for the actual content of the text, there is no substitute. Plato is perhaps the most influencial philosopher who ever lived. Alfred North Whitehead said something to the effect of "Every philosopher since Plato has merely been a footnote to his writing." And when you his works, you will no doubt discover that Whitehead was right - all philosophical disscussions lead back to the fountainhead, Plato. I would not go so far as to say that Plato was the first and last word in philosophy, but his style, power, and inquisitive nature have never since been duplicated. More so than than many contemporary philosophers, his thought is still relevent.

Lastly, this book has is the complete package. You can spend a lot of time and money hunting down individual dialogues, but why waste your time? After reading the Apology, the Crito and the Phaedo, you will surely want to continue on to the Republic and many of his other famous dialogues. Thus, it is very convenient to have EVERYTHING gathered together under one cover. For all the reasons cited above, this is the book to buy.

GOOD TRANSLATIONS, GOOD INTRODUCTIONS, QUALITY BINDING, FAIR PRICE

In ancient times, Plato was regarded as one who writes most beautifully, and even in translation his mastery comes forward.

Reading this book, you are at the beginning of philosophy. There are beautiful dialogs concerning the most profound questions anyone can ask.

An advantage of this particular book is that for a reasonable price you can own Plato's complete works in modern scholarly translations. The volume is skillfully edited and there are handy notes.

Plato is one of the few philosophers who can be read for pleasure. His influence on Western thought is immense. As Whitehead says, subsequent Western philosophy is just footnotes to Plato.

Here are some of the works collected in this volume -

Apology - Socrates defense of his life

Phaedo - a defense of the immortality of the soul

Euthyrpo - a criticism of the Divine Command theory of ethics

Republic - the ideal commonwealth, what is justice, theory of ideas

Meno - the recollection theory of knowledge

Timaeus - Plato's story of the creation of the universe, his cosmology

This is the only complete translation of the works of Plato in English and will no doubt go on to become the standard volume for many years to come. If you just read Plato for fun then this volume is all you require (though why anyone would read the "Parmenides" for fun escapes me). If, as a previous reviewer stated, you find that the translations are sometimes less than poetic - go and buy Jowett. However, for academic purposes it is unquestionably the best single collection although the quality of the translations is somewhat variable. The Grube translations are excellent as are the translations of the previously untranslated works. However the translation of "The Laws" is diabolical and serious readers are urged to purchase Pangle's translation as a supplement to this volume. The translation of the Timaeus is also occasionally misleading but then again so are most translations of this difficult work. Among the others, I particularly enjoyed the Phaedrus and Miss Levett's translation of the Theaetetus gets better with age.

If I (God forbid) could only own three books I would choose the Bible, Shakespeare, and the complete works of Plato. Plato is one of those authors whose works are so great and influential, that even if you have no idea what he wrote you probably have heard the name.

There are many debates about when philosophy really began and what philospohy should be read, but Plato is so fundamental to the entire history of western philosophy that one can hardly expect to get anywhere if one is not at least familiar with his major works. And if you are afraid because Plato is considered a philosopher, then let me assure you, there never has and never will be a philosopher who is more accessible to the average reader. I say this because all of his works are written in dialogue for, as a discussion between his spokesman, Socrates, and whoever the other boneheads trying to disagree with him are. Because of this format, the dialogues encourage an active engagement by the reader, and for the most part do not descend inot the technical rigors introduced with writers such as Aristotle (though Plato's arguments are still often long and complicated). It is not exactly what one wpuld call pleasure reading, but it's close!

The best way for the amateur to become familiar with Plato is to buy a complete works edition such as the Hackett. This is a big book, but to start out I would recommend reading 1. Meno, 2. Gorgias, 3. Sophist, 4. Symposium, 5. Phaedrus, 6. Apology and 7. Crito. These provide a good overview of Plato's philosophy inclusing thoughts on rhetoric, love, justice, knowledge and truth. You may have noticed that I left out perhaps Plato's most well known work, The Republic. I refuse to reccomend any edition but the Allan Bloom translation that is not in this edition. It is the definitive translation and is the one everyone should read.

As with all works that are translated (especially from the Greek) one will find and plethora of different editions and translations available, and not al are created equall. Aside from learning the Greek the best thing to do is just to pick up a translation and see how it sounds to you. It is true that you will never get all the right translations by buying a complete works volume, but a set like this gives you a good place to start your journey into the pleasures of Plato. Enjoy!, and may you emerge from the cave.