The Cambridge Companion to Socrates

Essays from a diverse group of experts providing a comprehensive guide to Socrates, the most famous Greek philosopher.

Donald R. Morrison (Author)

9780521541039, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 November 2010

436 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 2.3 cm, 0.58 kg

'This is a good book, and is more manageable in scope and half as expensive as the rival Blackwell Companion to Socrates. Donald Morrison deserves great credit for ably assembling an all-star team of contributors, and he includes a selective and well-organized bibliography and an index locorum.' Bryn Mawr Classical Review

The Cambridge Companion to Socrates is a collection of essays providing a comprehensive guide to Socrates, the most famous Greek philosopher. Because Socrates himself wrote nothing, our evidence comes from the writings of his friends (above all Plato), his enemies, and later writers. Socrates is thus a literary figure as well as a historical person. Both aspects of Socrates' legacy are covered in this volume. Socrates' character is full of paradox, and so are his philosophical views. These paradoxes have led to deep differences in scholars' interpretations of Socrates and his thought. Mirroring this wide range of thought about Socrates, this volume's contributors are unusually diverse in their background and perspective. The essays in this volume were authored by classical philologists, philosophers and historians from Germany, Francophone Canada, Britain and the United States, and they represent a range of interpretive and philosophical traditions.

1. The rise and fall of the Socratic problem Louis-André Dorion
2. The students of Socrates Klaus Döring
3. Xenophon and the enviable life of Socrates David K. O'Connor
4. Socrates in Aristophanes' Clouds David Konstan
5. Socrates and the new learning Paul Woodruff
6. Socratic religion Mark L. McPherran
7. Socrates and democratic Athens Josiah Ober
8. Socratic method Hugh H. Benson
9. Self-examination Christopher Rowe
10. Socratic ignorance Richard Bett
11. Reconsidering Socratic irony Melissa Lane
12. Socratic ethics and the Socratic psychology of action: a philosophical framework Terry Penner
13. Socrates and Eudaimonia Christopher Bobonich
14. Socrates' political philosophy Charles L. Griswold
15. Socrates in later Greek philosophy A. A. Long.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1]