Plato's Theaetetus: Part I of The Being of the Beautiful (Paperback)

by Plato (Author), Seth Benardete (Translator) "EUCLIDES: Just now, Terpsion, or a long time ago from the country?..." (more)
Key Phrases: opining false things, bare speeches, elemental knowledge, Plato's Parmenides (more...)

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Product Description

Theaetetus, the Sophist, and the Statesman are a trilogy of Platonic dialogues that show Socrates formulating his conception of philosophy as he prepares the defense for his trial. Originally published together as The Being of the Beautiful, these translations can be read separately or as a trilogy. Each includes an introduction, extensive notes, and comprehensive commentary that examines the trilogy's motifs and relationships.

"Seth Benardete is one of the very few contemporary classicists who combine the highest philological competence with a subtlety and taste that approximate that of the ancients. At the same time, he as set himself the entirely modern hermeneutical task of uncovering what the ancients preferred to keep veiled, of making explicit what they indicated, and hence...of showing the naked ugliness of artificial beauty."—Stanley Rose, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal

Seth Benardete (1930-2001) was professor of classics at New York University. He was the author or translator of many books, most recently The Argument of the Action, Plato's "Laws," and Plato's "Symposium," all published by the University of Chicago Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226670317
• ISBN-13: 978-0226670317
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #926,058 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Sophisticated Translation of this Great Text, February 28, 2004

By	John Russon (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Plato's Theaetetus is the first dialogue in a trilogy, (the other two dialogues being the Sophist and the Statesman). The Theaetetus focuses mostly on a conversation between Theaetetus and Socrates about the nature of knowledge. Their discussion goes through a long "immanent critique" of the notion that knowledge is immediate sensory givens, and then looks at the question whether the supplementation of judgment will be sufficient to explain knowledge. This dialogue also contains Socrates famous portrayal of himself as a midwife and much more. It is a quite difficult but essential text for any study of ancient philosophy.

This translation in particular is the one I use when I teach this work. It is quite hard to read, so a first-time student who is approaching this on his or her own might be better off using the translation published by Hackett (Levett/Burnyeat translation) or perhaps Cornford's translation, but the serious student should definitely turn to Benardete's translation. This translation is the one I favour because it is the best at allowing one to see in English what the Greek original is like. Plato's own language is very subtle and much of the value--philosophical and otherwise--of the work is to be found in exploration of the complexities of his language (it's allusions, ambiguities, etc.). Benardete's translation is hard to read because it aims to capture these complexities of the language rather than to make something that flows simply in English. This translation will allow you to get closer to reading Plato than any of the others that I know of.

Benardete also has extremely helpful notes and commentary at the end of his text (which are sometimes rather cryptic, which seems suitable to a Platonic text). As a whole, this book will allow the serious study of Plato an excellent opportunity to *think* about the dialogue. I recommend it very highly.