Plato
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Product Description In Book Seven, Socrates begins the discussion with the Allegory of the Cave, an exploration of the natural process of being educat
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ed. In Book Eight, Socrates and Plato's brothers explore five different kinds of republic and five different kinds of individual, showing how aristocracy becomes timocracy and how oligarchy spawns democracy, ending with the evolution of tyranny. Review A Platonic dialogue attempts to find truth through the push-pull of dialectic, that verbal give-and-take that stimulates thought and uncovers falsehood. Agora Publications has recorded some of Plato's most famous dialogues and also publishes modernized texts by Albert A. Anderson of Benjamin Jowett's 1873 translation used for these recordings. All of the tapes make for a lively exposure to Platonic thought....The philosophical nature of the talks makes the printed manuals a valuable supplement to these audiobooks. The ideal preparation is to read the dialogue before listening to the tapes. Director Raymund Munro usually establishes a relaxed, conversational pace that allows the listener unfamiliar with Plato to absorb the ideas and follow the developing thought.... Agora should be applauded for its plan to record all of Plato's dialogues. Both students and the interested general listener will welcome the tapes as a vivid way to experience classical literature. -- AudioFile, The Audiobook Review, 1/1999 From the Publisher Plato himself intended these works to be performed, not as the end but the beginning of the dialectical process that lies at the heart of philosophy. For that reason we are developing new texts that are simultaneously faithful to the spirit of the original and intelligible to the general reader. The impetus for developing these dramatizations grows out of my teaching and administrative experience as Professor of Philosophy and Murata Chair of Ethics at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. I have also taught at Clark University, Albion College, Bates College, and Rhode Island School of Design. I have used these dramatizations in undergraduate, graduate, and executive education, and I find that they help us understand the ideas and concepts more quickly and deeply. From the Back Cover "Socrates: Glaucon, my friend, you may now connect this allegory with what we were saying before. What we normally see with our eyes can be compared with the prison where the people dwell, and the fire can be related to the power of the sun. Consider the journey out of the cave and seeing the things there to be the ascent of the soul to the realm of what is knowable." Book Seven begins with the Allegory of the Cave. Socrates and Glaucon probe the meaning of this story as it relates to the discussion of knowledge and reality developed earlier and to the concept of dialectic, the overall method of Plato's dialogues. Throughout Plato's Republic we confront the ways in which the republic and the individual mirror and create each other. In Book Eight Socrates and Plato's brothers explore five different kinds of republic and five different kinds of individual, showing how aristocracy becomes timocracy and how oligarchy spawns democracy, ending with the evolution of tyranny. About the Author Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher who lived from 427-347 B.C. His most famous work is The Republic, one of approximately two dozen dialogues that cover major philosophical issues. What is the nature of human existence? What is the best form of human society? How should justice be defined and manifested in human life? What is the best form of education for human beings? What is the nature of the human person? These are some of the questions blended in dramatic form that can be brought alive in the imagination.
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