I've been reading this edition of Plato's Complete Works cover-to-cover, and I'm almost at the end of reading the dialogue "Laws" of this Complete Works (which is the last major dialogue in this edition, with the rest 100-150 being the spurious writings historically attributed to Plato and non-dialogue works like his "Letters").
The translations are pretty readable and nice. But what I like most about this edition is how it's nicely the format is with how it chronologically places the dialogues in a order that best makes sense for someone new to Plato to get introduced to, and how it locates dialogues that make sense to read together, based on their continuation or relevancy to the setting or topic of the dialogue, next to each other. Such as the first 4 dialogues in this edition: "Euthyphro" -- which occurs before Socrates' hearing, "Apology" -- Socrates defense during his trial, Crito -- occurs after his sentence but before his execution, and Phaedo -- which occurs during his execution and death; the first 3 are pretty short and easy to get into if you're relatively new to philosophy, and Phaedo, which makes sense to read chronologically after them, is the start of getting into some of Plato's deeper beliefs that aren't him critiquing the popular topics of his day. Then, after those, the proceeding dialogues are Theaetetus-Sophist-Statesman-Parmenides, which are linked to the same setting, followed by Philebus (which is sort of similar in theme of what is knowledge to the previous 4). Then Symposium and Phaedrus -- both centered on love and beauty. Next comes the First and Second Alcibiades and Hipparchus, which loosely share the theme of vice and greed, which is followed by Rival Lovers and Theages, both based on what kind of education one should focus on attaining. Theages's placement, in my opinion, marks the official start of the discussion of virtue in this edition with the following dialogue, as it's proceeded by Charmides-Laches-Lysis; which are then followed by the Sophist-centered dialogues (Euthydemus-Protagoras-Gorgias-Meno-Greater Hippias-Lesser Hippias) that pretty much talk about the same subject but with Plato's rebuttal of the practices and beliefs of the prominent Sophists of his day. The next chronological dialogues after that and before the Republic are Ion, Menexenus, and Clitophon, all of which center the integrity of orators. Finally, you get to the notorious Republic, which is pretty long and includes various subjects and topics discussed in the previous mentioned dialogues; which is followed by Timaeus and Critias which are continuations in the same setting. Then you get Minos, a fitting introduction dialogue for the theme that is in "Laws", and finally "Laws" -- Plato's longest and perhaps last major work (that we have), that is a more pragmatic-contrasted version of the Republic. Then you have mostly spurious and minor work that has in the past been attributed to him, that, aside from his Letters, aren't that relevant to read if you're focused on his philosophical beliefs alone.
This is perhaps the best order to read his dialogues in if you really want to read all them continuously. The only fault I find in it, is the early location of Parmenides in this edition, which I believe, and is notorious for, being the most cryptically-complex and ambiguous dialogue of Plato's, that is best suited to hold-off, or to be re-read at the end.
There isn't much commentary or annotation in this edition, which I can't really complain about, as Hackett's main purpose of compiling these translations was probably more aligned as making this more of reference edition for scholars and students to have and flip through for studying particular dialogues, and not a thoroughly connected study textbook for those interested of reading ALL of Plato (which many of people, besides for academic philosophers, probably don't do). So to those who are reading this, who aren't that familiar with Plato and want to read the entirety of his complete works (or a significant amount of it) I highly advise you to first read or become familiar with Homer and Hesiod with their epics, read a little bit on some of the major Pre-socratics and their beliefs, some plays or overview of Greek drama, and some of Greek history (I highly recommend reading Herodotus and Thucydides' Histories), and get something like the Cambridge Companion to Plato as commentary to read afterwards.
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Chaire, stranger
These books are EXTRA T H I C C so i know it's going to take me probably a year or 2 to even finish them but I'm hyped for it.."Malaka!!" -Kassandra/Alexios 431 BC
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Naomi
Good content but poor quality
Reviewed in the Netherlands on December 3, 2023
