Socratic Studies

The companion to Vlastos' highly acclaimed Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher.

Gregory Vlastos (Author), Myles Burnyeat (Edited by)

9780521447355, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 16 December 1993

168 pages
22.7 x 15.1 x 1.1 cm, 0.22 kg

"Over the last dozen years or so Vlastos has transformed the study of Socrates with missionary zeal. He has produced a picture of Socrates that is amazingly consistent and often satisfying, built upon a series of plausible hypotheses." Ancient Philosophy

This is the companion volume to Gregory Vlastos' highly acclaimed work Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher. Four ground-breaking papers which laid the basis for his understanding of Socrates are collected here, in revised form: they examine Socrates' elenctic method of investigative argument, his disavowal of knowledge, his concern for definition, and the complications of his relationship with the Athenian democracy. The fifth chapter is a new and provocative discussion of Socrates' arguments in the Protagoras and Laches. The epilogue 'Socrates and Vietnam' suggests that Socrates was not, as Plato claimed, the most just man of his time. The papers have been prepared for publication by Professor Myles Burnyeat with the minimum of editorial intervention.

Editor's preface
1. The Socratic elenchus: method is all
2. Socrates' disavowal of knowledge
3. Is the 'Socratic fallacy' Socratic?
4. The historical Socrates and Athenian democracy
5. The Protagoras and the Laches
Epilogue: Socrates and Vietnam
Additional notes.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]