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Title: Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher by Gregory Vlastos ISBN: 0-8014-9787-6 Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Best study of Socrates available at present
Comment: Gregory Vlastos was the most celebrated scholar of classical Greek philosophy in the last third of the twentieth century, if not the most important of the past hundred years. Virtually, every major project in Platonic studies since 1960 has been in some way informed by him. For the reason of the maginitude of his scholarship alone, one really cannot go wrong with this book, in my opinion, one of his best.
What made Vlastos such a seminal figure is demonstrated abundantly in this study: 1) his ability to identify, elucidate, and interpret, in the light of the relevant contexts, the defining issues; 2) his closely reasoned justification for those interpretations.
The book is really a collection of papers and lectures extending from the late 1950's through the 1980's which illumine Vlastos' position that Socrates was "... the first to establish the eudaemonist foundation of ethical theory which becomes common ground for all the schools that sprung up around him, and more; he is the founder of the non-instrumentalist form of eudaemonism held in common by the Platonists, Aristotelians, Cynics, and Stoics, i.e. of all Greek moral pholosophers except the Epicureans."
As noted, Vlastos gives detailed insights into the elements of Socrates' moral theory and method of argument. The famous paper, "Socratic Irony", which opens the book (23 pages) is by far the most informative I have read on the subject, and, as Vlastos shows us, indispensible for understanding both Socratic moral theory and method of argument. A perfect source for undergraduate papers on these subjects, as well.
Chapter 7, "Socrates' Rejection of Retaliation" is very likely the most important work on this crucial subject at the heart of Socratic moral theory and sine qua non for any deeper understanding of Socrates and his "mission" (he articulated the "Golden Rule" 400 + years before Christ). In it (page 198), Vlastos claims: "In saying that it is never good to do a wrong, and making this the foundational reason for breaking with the accepted morality, Socrates must be using the word in its most inclusive sense. He must be saying: 'If an act of yours will wrong another, then it is bad for you, the agent, so bad that no good it offers could compensate you for its evil for you.'"
The final chapter "Happiness and Virtue in Socrates' Moral Theory", is the cumulation of nearly half a century of research, and again, a benchmark in Socratic studies. The same is felt universally by those professionally involved in such work: here is seminal, accessible scholarship on a subject which nearly 2,500 years since its original articulation still imperatively commands our attention.
Rating: 5
Summary: vlastos rides again
Comment: This is a superb book on the philosophy of Socrates. You may not agree with Vlastos point by point; but if you disagree, you will have to work out your objections very carefully. One minor quibble: Vlastos seems to determined to defend whatever Socrates does and however he argues. This sometimes leads to (what looks very much like) special pleading. But the book is a masterpiece of readable, analytic philosophy.
Rating: 5
Summary: A classic whether you agree with Vlastos' views or not
Comment: A deeply profound scholarly work that is both well-written and a pleasure to read is hard to find, but Vlastos achieves this in this wonderful book. Although i do not agree with some of Vlastos' points concerning Plato, i must acknowledge the fact that most, if not all, of my ideas on Plato were either improved or disproved by either agreeing or disagreeing with Vlastos' interpretation of Plato. This book is one of the best ways for any reader of the Plato to be initiated into the various interpretations of his thought. The various theses raised by most scholarly works on Plato today can be traced to have developed either in agreement or in disagreement to this book. Some ideas that you will find in this work are: -a theory on how to chronologically arrange the Platonic corpus -an influential approach to understanding the reasons behind and the limits of the Socratic method -a theory on how to separate Plato's thought from Socrates' thought
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Title: Socratic Studies by Gregory Vlastos, Myles Burnyeat ISBN: 0521447356 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 16 December, 1993 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Studies in Greek Philosophy by Gregory Vlastos, Daniel W. Graham ISBN: 069101938X Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 23 December, 1996 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Virtues of Authenticity by Alexander Nehamas ISBN: 0691001782 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 16 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Platonic Studies by Gregory Vlastos ISBN: 0691100217 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 December, 1973 List Price(USD): $42.50 |
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Title: Plato's Ethics by Terence H. Irwin ISBN: 0195086457 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: January, 1995 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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