The Cambridge Companion to Plato

A rich and wide-ranging Companion to Plato's philosophy that is accessible to students while of equal interest to scholars.

David Ebrey (Edited by), Richard Kraut (Edited by)

9781108457262, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 August 2022

520 pages
22.7 x 15.1 x 3.2 cm, 0.9 kg

'Without question, the second edition of this companion is a welcome addition to Plato scholarship … These essays illuminate specific aspects of his work within its coherent overall corpus. Including a historical chronology, a 32-page bibliography, extensive chapter notes, and a general index and index locorum, this volume will be an enduring resource … Essential.' J. Gough, Choice

The first edition of the Cambridge Companion to Plato (1992), edited by Richard Kraut, shaped scholarly research and guided new students for thirty years. This new edition introduces students to fresh approaches to Platonic dialogues while advancing the next generation of research. Of its seventeen chapters, nine are entirely new, written by a new generation of scholars. Six others have been thoroughly revised and updated by their original authors. The volume covers the full range of Plato's interests, including ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, religion, mathematics, and psychology. Plato's dialogues are approached as unified works and considered within their intellectual context, and the revised introduction suggests a way of reading the dialogues that attends to the differences between them while also tracing their interrelations. The result is a rich and wide-ranging volume which will be valuable for all students and scholars of Plato.

1. Introduction to the study of Plato David Ebrey and Richard Kraut
2. Plato in his context T. H. Irwin
3. Stylometry and chronology Leonard Brandwood
4. Plato's Socrates and his conception of philosophy Eric Brown
5. Being good at being bad: Plato's Hippias Minor Agnes Callard
6. Inquiry in the Meno Gail Fine
7. Why eros? Suzanne Obdrzalek
8. Plato on philosophy and the mysteries Gábor Betegh
9. The unfolding account of the forms in the Phaedo David Ebrey
10. The defense of justice in Plato's republic Richard Kraut
11. Plato on poetic creativity: A revision Elizabeth Asmis
12. Betwixt and between: Plato on mathematical objects Henry Mendell
13. Another good-bye to the third man Constance C. Meinwald
14. Plato's Sophist on false statements Michael Frede
15. Cosmology and human nature in the Timaeus Emily Fletcher
16. The fourfold classification and Socrates' craft analogy in the Philebus Verity Harte
17. Law in Plato's late politics Rachana Kamtekar and Rachel Singpurwalla.

Subject Areas: Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Philosophy: aesthetics [HPN], Philosophy: logic [HPL], Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology [HPJ], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]