Customer Reviews

Plato : Sophist: The Professor of Wisdom (Focus Philosophical Library)

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This is a very good translation for people reading the Sophist for the first time. The language is accessible (as much as it can be considering that this is one of the most difficult dialogues). Other translations of the dialogue are either written in archaic English or have other purposes. Benardete's is excellent, but it is for studying, not reading.

The introduction also gives a very nice outline of the dialogue.

For many, this dialogue represents the culmination of Platonic thought. Theatetus and the Eleatic stranger announce a program of determination of the function and essence of the Sophist. They proceed by way of dialectical bifurcation; in a way this text is about the process of bifurcation itself. We are left with little to think about the Sophist in positive terms. Rather, we are left with the essence of sophistry as a kind of semblance-the sophist creates the impression of true knowledge. However, at the heart of this text is a metaphysical questioning of the meaning of being itself: "Then clarify this for us, since we're confused by it. What do you want to signify when you say being? Obviously you've known for a long time. We thought we did, but now we're confused about it." This brief problematic would of course find itself as the opening quotation of Heidegger's Being and Time. The Sophist remains one of the most crucial and mysterious of all metaphysical texts.

Recommended for anyone who wants to study philosophy. The introduction is just wonderful.It facilitates the undertanding of the text. It is worth buying,