[Up next: Greater Hippias] "Alcibiades" is a byword for a certain kind of decadent and ostentatious public figure, one who is attractive, ambitious, courts scandal, and is self-involved.  It was with this archetype that I was most acquainted.  I think in our high school Great Books class we read something called "Alcibiades" but I don't think … Continue reading Plato Project #5: First Alcibiades →

[Up next: "First Alcibiades"] "Euthyphro" is the third and final full Socratic text I've spent some time teaching (I've also excerpted the analogy of the cave, and the Meno sequence where Socrates teaches a slave-boy geometry, which we'll come to in good time).  A quick perusal of the internet shows that the substance of the argument in … Continue reading Plato Project #4: Euthyphro →

  [Next Week - Crito] I'd never read "Charmides" before, so I'll just share my first impressions. The first and most striking feature of this dialogue, for me anyway, is that it's narrated in the first person, by Socrates himself.  I really haven't read very many of the off-the-beaten-path dialogues, so maybe this is a common … Continue reading Plato Project #2: Charmides →

  "How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that they almost made me forget who I was-so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth." So begins Socrates' final defense to the Athenian jury (Jowett's translation).  These are words I read … Continue reading Plato Project #1: The Apology of Socrates →