Arguing with Socrates: An Introduction to Plato's Shorter Dialogues

Description

Ranging from the Symposium to the Apology, this is a concise but authoritative guide to the most important and widely studied of Plato's Socratic dialogues. Taking each of the major dialogues in turn, Arguing with Socrates encourages students to engage directly with the questions that Socrates raises and with their relevance to 21st century life. Along the way, the book draws on Socrates' thought to explore such questions as: * What is virtue and can it be taught? * Should we obey the law if we don't agree with it? * Do brave people feel fear? * Can we find truth in poetry? Arguing with Socrates also includes an extensive introduction, providing an overview of the key themes of the dialogues, their political and cultural context and Socrates' philosophical method. Guides to further reading are also provided to help students take their studies further, making this an essential one-volume reference for anyone studying these foundational philosophical works.

Christopher Warne teaches in the Department of Philosophy, Hills Road College, Cambridge, UK.

Christopher Warne does two things especially well in this new book. First, he skillfully combines two approaches to Plato that commonly clash. Following Debra Nails, we can call these the literary-contextualist and the analytic-developmentalist styles. Second, Arguing with Socrates forces readers to think for themselves. Warne generally proceeds dialectically: he looks at arguments from many sides, but he rarely argues for his own conclusions. For both reasons this book should prove very useful to its target audience, namely early-level undergraduates ... [A] stimulating introduction to the philosophical methods of Socrates and to nine important Socratic dialogues. It best suits introductory-level readers, and I recommend it very strongly. -- Peter Aronoff, Trinity School * Bryn Mawr Classical Review * The clarity of presentation [of this work] is pleasing, and the analyses ... sound. * The Heythrop Journal *