This was the first book I read on Symposium, and I was glad. Later when I wanted to know more I moved on to Rosen and Dover, but if all you want to do is read the Symposium with a commentary, this is the place to start. Allen gives you just enough detail to be enlightening, without swamping you. If you want to be swamped, read Rosen (not that being swamped is necessarily a bad thing). If you want to be entertained, read Allen.

quantitative analysis with infrare

I wondered that why there isn't any church putting Jacque Louis-David's painting the Death of Socrates on the wall. If you hear the story of Socrates' sarcrifice, you would understand why this old man is worth of the worship from millions. Imagine you are in the situation of Socrates. Assume that you are a patriotic citizen of a country. For all the years of your life, you try to make your fellow citizen smart and do them goods by spending all your time making speeches on the streets, defending justice and teaching the students without any charges. Assume that you have annoyed the ruling class of this country and they prosecute you on the court for corrupting the youths of your country-they could not prove that though. Assume your fellow citizen vote and put you to death on the court for you are too poor to pay a satisfactory fine and reject to proclaiming justice in exchange for your release. Assume that your best friend asks you to escape from jail since it is unjust for you to accept this unreasonable condemnation, and he guarantees that all the financial problems would be taken care of and your friends who help you escape would not be suffered, so that you can live in the countries that you prefer and raise your children by yourselves. Is anybody there would refuse to escape? However, Socrates does. He launches three arugements. 1. We should never injury others on any circumstances. Escape from jail and breaks the laws is certainly an act that would put the Laws of Athens on the blink of destruction. 2. You should respect your country's command as if you respect your parents. Since a person's birth, his country provides the protections, regulates the supply of food and enriches him with education. Thus, a person shouls respect his country like or more than he respects his parents. 3. There is a contract between the government and the people. If a person does not like the Laws of a country, he can choose to leave it. If he chooses to stay, that means he signs the contract with government of not ! breaking the laws. If he does not break the laws, the government can't do anything on him. If he does, the government reserves the rights to punish him or even execute him.

This book comprises the last part of Socrates' life: Euthyphro, the cause of his accusation, The Apology ,his cross-interrogation at the court, Crito, his refusal to escape from jail, and Phaedo, his Sarcrifice. There are the most important chapters in Plato. The weight of Socrates' sarcrifice is like the cruxifiction of Christ; if he does not die, he is not the Messiah. So, if you don't have too much time to read the Complete Works of Plato, this book undoubtedly would be the best choice for you to understand Plato.

A more concise, informative review of Socrates could not be written. Many a Philosophy student has spent countless agonizing hours reading and re-reading the platonic dialogues to gain a glimpse into the wisdom that was Socrates. The author here, sums it up, in a no-larger-than-cliff-notes-format, making the world of Philosophy so much more accessible to the novice, like myself. She gives detailed background accounts of the political and social life of athens at the time, describing how the comentary of Socrates related to the various classes in the world's first democracy; making this book a must for the would be philosopher, or historian. No scholarly knowledge of Plato is needed to understand the message Socrates has to offer. Dr. May uses ordinary language and great analogies to explain just how it made perfect sense, for Socrates to continue the great search for wisdom, while maintaining his firm belief that Human knowledge is worth little or nothing, and hence unobtainable. Readers of this book will gain a deep understanding of what Socrates meant by "The unexamined life is not worth living". The last section of the book, entitled "The End of the Examined Life" portrays Socrates' deep moral convictions, as he refuses to abandon his principals even in the face of death. This makes a great companion to any philosophy, acnient history or humanities course dealing with ancient greece, or read it on your own to get the jist of what Socrates was all about.

I became familiar with Kreeft's work when I read his _A Refutation of Moral Relativism_; checked it out from my local library and held on to it for several weeks, reading it front-to-back several times.

Prof. Kreeft uses 40 "tags" to introduce key precepts of philosophy - the love of (the search for) wisdom - and illustrates those tags with excerpts from Plato's "Apology".

Cleanly written, easily comprehensible, and enjoyable, I can't wait to get my hands on more of Dr. Kreeft's work (I have a few items of his in my cart already!).

With a few more works like this, we ought to be able to reverse two centuries of reductionism and relativism disguised as "Enlightenment" and fight the new generation of Sophists back into their caves.

Author's Comments

Before microbes were discovered and shown to be the cause of infectious diseases, there existed a very rich and imaginative literature concerning the origin of epidemics. Introduced by Hippocrates and blessed by Galen, the role of a 'tainted' atmosphere (miasmas) was central to nearly all systems of beliefs well into the late 19th century. Many causes were imagined to explain the coming of miasmas, including rotting bodies and vegetable matter, volcanic action that freed poisonous emanations from the 'bowels of the earth' and God-driven mechanisms, including disease-carrying demons. Plague Legends illustrates how these ideas evolved as old and new disease epidemics occurred in the western world, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Today, when the threat of bioterrorism is sweeping the world, one might ask of what relevance is such a book. For myself, I think that there are two aspects of this history that are of particular interest. The first is how very recent dramatically erroneous ideas concerning disease causation dominated the medical literature. Only in the latter part of the 19th century did medicine free itself from more than two millennia of false and dogmatically held beliefs. Very quickly in the 20th century medical science advanced to the point where, at least for the western countries, most plague terrors became a thing of history, something to be read about but no longer feared.

Secondly, the epidemic threats of the past provoked a terror that in many ways was greater than that of today. There were no cures for any of the major diseases that moved from one part of the world to another, so as the newspapers reported outbreaks the most reliable response, for those who could afford to do so, was to flee as quickly as possible. Such was the case when yellow fever struck Philadelphia in 1793 and cholera New York in 1832 and 1849. Comparing one generation's fear with that of another is in itself a meaningless effort, but for some it might provide a degree of solace to know that the world has seen far worse and has managed not only to survive but to conquer many of the plague threats that once terrorized it.

Socrates Litsios

Vol 2- For the philosopher: A reader-friendly perennial. Excellent source for Platonic summaries and pre-socratic insights. Comprehensive. Yet archaic pro's.( Read his Theateatus "midwife section".) On occasion, theories are outdated. But for solid platform understanding of "Plato and Friends", consider it indespensable. Best of all, are Mr. Grote's copious and relevent footnotes. Paper topics abound. Delicious reading - simply because it can be read with same pleasure it was originally written with. This is, I think, THE place for the serious student of philosophy to begin upper study of the Platonic dialogues. Insightful. RWA

Plato is a master, because he is qualified to teach the beginning philosophers like us. He teaches the step by step process of moving from confusion toward peace. For example, Plato shows us how to become peaceful about the disturbing question of whether the fear of death may be conquered?

The things that bring about confusion in the human mind are problems. Problems are the unexplained differences in our observations. To illustrate, some people are fearful in relation to death. Mention the word "death" and the heart begins pounding, the mouth dries up, and one's skin becomes blanched. But Socrates was not fearful in relation to death. "He died so fearlessly," writes Plato. The heart of Socrates was calm and not pounding when he approached death. As a result, a person becomes confused when observing the difference between people with fear and a brave Socrates in relation to death.

Confusion is a good feature to have, because confusion leads to wonder, and wonder is the cause of feeling youthful. The youthful, honest observer is a person who naturally wonders about Socrates. Why is it that Socrates was calm at the time of his death?

The third step after confusion and wonder toward peace is Poetry. Poetry increases a person's wonder and brings about a desire for a solution to the problem. Plato introduces a poem about a ship, "in which, according to Athenian tradition, Theseus went to Crete when he took with him the fourteen youths, and was the savior of them and of himself." This poem supports the conclusion that wondering about the fearless Socrates will bring about peace. Just as Theseus saved fourteen youths from death, so to will Socrates save us from the fear of death.

Rhetoric is expressed with a speech that moves a listener from wonder and desire for a solution toward hope. Hope is an attraction for a person who has conquered the fear of death. Socrates triggers our hope with a trick of rhetoric when he says, "I do not grieve as I might have done, for I have good hope that there is yet something remaining for the dead." Socrates then stimulates our confidence in him by stating a major premise. "I think the true philosopher is always pursuing death." And because Socrates is a true philosopher, Socrates has always pursued death. Consequently, Socrates is qualified to conquer the fear of death.

Philosophy is next with its tools of definitions, arguments and challenges to the arguments. Socrates defines death as "the completion...of the separation of soul and body".

Every argument is composed of premises and a conclusion. Socrates employs five different premises to support the same conclusion: that we are going to be aware of organizing something after death. The first premise composing the first argument is the following proposition:
Everything that becomes "released" must be a thing that exists after becoming released.

The second argument is based on the following major premise:
Every thing with parts can be separated. For example, a tire can be separated from its car, because a tire is a part of the car. But, according to Socrates, no soul is a thing with parts. The soul is "not compounded". Therefore, no soul can be separated. And because separation is death, no soul has death, which means that the soul's organization activities will not become terminated, ever.

Argument number three opens with a clear direction from Socrates. "Mark the point at which I am aiming," he says. "Essential opposites exclude one another." For example, the number three is odd and cannot be even. "Will not the number three perish or undergo anything rather than be made an even number, while remaining three?" Again, a number cannot be three and even at the same time. But living is the essential opposite of dying. Therefore, living excludes dying. And because the soul is the source of living, the soul cannot die. Thus, the soul will be aware of organizing something after separating from the body.

The last stage from confusion toward peace is the experience of peace itself. Peace is rest with appreciation. But rest with appreciation is caused by good philosophical arguments. Therefore, peace follows good philosophical arguments. And the reader has several causes of thankfulness from the arguments and counter arguments above. First, we can be certain of our hope in Socrates. He shows us how to conquer our fears with poetry, rhetoric, definitions, arguments and sound conclusions.

Then, raising the cup to his lips, quite readily and cheerfully he drank off the poison. Up to then most of us had been able to control our sorrow; but when we saw him drinking and saw too that he had finished the drink, we could no longer forbear, and in spite of myself my own tears were flowing fast, so that I covered my face and wept, not for him, but at the thought of my own calamity in having to part from such a friend.

Socrates alone retained his calmness. The activity of focusing on the soul was a top priority for Socrates and he seriously addressed the fear of death. Plus, he showed kindness to his challengers Concerning these things we can be certain and forever thankful.

This was the first book of Ancient Greece I read, when I was rather young. It was the great intellectual shock of my life (together with discovering that you could use mathematics to describe nature). I continue reading it every now and then. What stunned me then (and now!) is that you could perfectly enter that discussion (with your modern knowledge, that is) and take profit of it. They would welcome you, they were tolerant. An eminent Italian journalist, Augusto Guerriero, used to state: everything there was to say has been already said, and better, by the Greek. I couldn't agree more.

In Plato's Progeny: How Plato And Socrates Still Captivate The Modern Mind, Melissa Lane (University Lecturer in History at Cambridge and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge) begins with an account of modern responses to the trial of Socrates and the controversial question of Socrates' relation to Plato. She explores the idea of Platonic origins in and for philosophy, as well as the Platonic foundations for philosophical politics. Plato's Progeny also explores the invocations of Plato as Lane persuasively argues that twentieth-century ideological battles have obscured the importance of Socratic individualism, the nature of Platonic ethics, and the value of Platonic politics for a contemporary society. Enthusiastically recommended for students of philosophy in general, and the contributions of Socrates and Plato in particular, Plato's Progeny is an ideal and exceptionally well written introduction and commentary.