Dialogues of Plato - MobileReference [0]
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
List of Plato's Dialogues by Period
List of Dialogues in Alphabetical Order
Plato Biography
About and Navigation
List of Plato's Dialogues by Period
Early dialogues:
Apology
Crito
Charmides
Laches, or; Courage
Lysis, or; Friendship
Euthyphro
Menexenus
Ion
The following are variously considered transitional or middle period dialogues:
Gorgias
Protagoras
Meno
Middle dialogues:
Euthydemus
Cratylus
Phaedo
Phaedrus
Symposium
The Republic
Theaetetus
Parmenides
Late dialogues:
Sophist
Statesman
Philebus
Timaeus
Critias
Laws
________
List of Dialogues in Alphabetical Order
_A_ | _C_ | _E_ | _G_ | _I_ | _L_ | _M_ | _P_ | _R_ | _S_ | _T_
Apology
Charmides, or; Temperance
Cratylus
Critias
Crito
Euthydemus
Euthyphro
Gorgias
Ion
Laches, or; Courage
Laws
Lysis, or; Friendship
Menexenus
Meno
Parmenides
Phaedo
Phaedrus
Philebus
Protagoras
Republic
Sophist
Statesman
Symposium
Theaetetus
Timaeus
________
Plato
Biography | Plato and Socrates | Narration of the dialogues | Trial of Socrates | Unity and diversity of the dialogues | Works
Plato (Pláton, "wide, broad-browed") (428/427 BC - 348/347 BC), was a Classical Greek philosopher. Together with his teacher, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the philosophical foundations of Western culture. Plato was also a mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Plato was originally a student of Socrates, and was much influenced by his thinking as by what he saw as his teacher's unjust death.
Plato's brilliance as a writer and thinker can be witnessed by reading his Socratic dialogues. Some of the dialogues, letters, and other works that are ascribed to him are considered spurious. Interestingly, although there is little question that Plato lectured at the Academy that he founded, the pedagogical function of his dialogues, if any, is not known with certainty. The dialogues have since Plato's time been used to teach a range of subjects, mostly including philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and other subjects about which he wrote.
Biography
Early life
Birth and family
The exact birthdate of Plato is unknown. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars estimate that he was born in Athens or Aegina between 428 and 427 BC. His father was Ariston. According to a disputed tradition, reported by Diogenes Laertius, Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens, Codrus, and the king of Messenia, Melanthus. Plato's mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet Solon. Perictione was sister of Charmides and niece of Critias, both prominent figures of the Thirty Tyrants, the brief oligarchic regime, which followed on the collapse of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian war (404-403 b.c.e.). Besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione had three other children; these were two sons, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter Potone, the mother of Speusippus (the nephew and successor of Plato as head of his philosophical Academy). According to the Republic, Adeimantus and Glaucon were older than Plato. Nevertheless, in his Memorabilia, Xenophon presents Glaucon as younger than Plato.
According to certain reports of ancient writers, Plato' s mother became pregnant through a virginal conception: Ariston tried to force his attentions on Perictione, but failed of his purpose; then the ancient Greek god Apollo appeared to him in a vision, and, as a result of it, Ariston left Perictione unmolested. Another legend related that, while he was sleeping as an infant, bees had settled on the lips of Plato; an augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse philosophy.
Ariston appears to have died in Plato's childhood, although the precise dating of his death is difficult. Perictione then married Pyrilampes, her mother's brother, who had served many