Plato's first interpreters / Harold Tarrant.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tarrant, Harold.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Plato.

Platonists.

Physical Description:

viii, 263 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 2000.

Summary:

Harold Tarrant here explores ancient attempts to interpret Plato's writings, by philosophers who spoke a Greek close to Plato's own, and provides a fresh, almost primitive, reading of Plato himself. His book also serves as a synthesis of recent work on ancient interpreters of Plato.

Tarrant's primary emphasis is on the Middle Platonists, but he also discusses the Old and New Academies, the Athenian and Alexandrian Neoplatonists, and selected nonphilosophical writers. In Part I, he addresses some of the principal issues of interpretation -- Are the dialogues drama or philosophy? Is Plato offering doctrine? What parts of the corpus are most important? -- and considers them alongside the views of ancient readers. In Part II, he offers a historical over-view of significant ancient developments in interpretation over the centuries. In Part III, he considers ancient attitudes toward particular groups of dialogues, and the Gorgias and the Theaetetus individually.

Contents:

1. What kind of text is this?

2. Are there doctrines here?

3. Where do I look for Plato's doctrines?

4. Defending and attacking Plato's work

5. The struggle for Socrates and Plato

6. The re-establishment of Platonic philosophy

7. The principal Neoplatonist interpreters

8. The so-called early dialogues

9. From false art to true

10. Recollecting Plato's Middle Period

11. The debate over the Theaetetus

12. The 'logical' dialogues

13. Extracting the doctrine.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [217]-257) and indexes.

ISBN:

080143792X

OCLC:

43952000