DESCRIPTION:

This course is an general introduction to Plato’s thought on ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics as represented by dialogues of his early and middle periods.

TEXTS:

The Complete Dialogues. Hackett 1996.

Some recommended further reading:

A General
W.K.C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy 3,4 (Cambridge 1971, 1975)
T.H. Irwin, Plato’s Ethics (Oxford 1995)
Gregory Vlastos, Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher (Cornell 1991)
G. Fine, On Ideas (Oxford 1993)
G. Fine (ed.). Plato 1 & 2. Oxford Readings in Philosophy (Oxford 1999)
T. Irwin. (ed.) Classical Philosophy: Collected Papers (New York 1995)
I. M. Crombie, An Examination of Plato’s Doctrines (London 1962)
Ch. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue (Cambridge 1996)
R. Kraut (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Plato (Cambridge 1992)

B Commentaries
R.W. Sharples. Plato: Meno (Bolchazy & Carducci 1985)
D. Gallop. Plato: Phaedo (Chapil Hill 1965)
D. Bostock. Plato’s Phaedo (Oxford, 1986)
J. Annas. An Introduction to Plato’s Republic (Oxford 1981)

C A few Papers
Early Socratic Dialogues
G. Vlastos. “The Socratic Elenchus.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 1 (1983), 27–58.
P.T. Geach. “Plato’s Euthyphro.” In Logic Matters (Berkeley 1980)

Gorgias
G. Vlastos. “Was Polus refuted?” American Journal of Philology 88 (1967) 454– 60.

Meno
G. Vlastos. “Anamnesis in the Meno.” Dialogue 4 (1965) 143–67.
P. Woodruff. “Plato’s early theory of knowledge.” In S. Everson ed., Epistemology: Companions to Ancient Thought (Cambridge 1990) 60–84.
G. Fine. “Inquiry in the Meno.” In The Cambridge Companion to Plato (Cambridge 1992) 200–26.

Phaedo
A. Nehamas. “Plato on the imperfection of the sensible world.” American Philosophical Quarterly 12 (1975) 105–17.
G. Vlastos. “Reasons and causes in the Phaedo.” In Vlastos, Platonic Studies (Princeton 1973) 76–110.
I. Mueller. “Platonism and the study of nature (Phd. 95efff.).” In ed. J. Gentzler, Method in Ancient Philosophy (Oxford, 1998) 67-89.

Republic
G. Vlastos. “Degrees of reality in Plato.” In Vlastos, Platonic Studies (Princeton 1973) 58–75.
Ch. Kahn. “Some philosophical uses of ‘to be’ in Plato.” Phronesis 26 (1981) 105–34.
G. Fine. “Knowledge and belief in Republic V–VII.” In Everson, Epistemology 85–115.