Plato (428/427-348/347 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and mathematician of the Classic Age who founded the Academy of Athens. Noted as a student of Socrates, Plato has distinguished himself as one of the founders...

Socratic dialogue is a genre of prose literary works developed in Greece at the turn of the fourth century BCE, preserved today in the dialogues of Plato and the Socratic works of Xenophon. Characters discuss moral and philosophical problems, illustrating a version of the Socratic method. The dialogues are either dramatic or narrative, and Socrates is often the main character.Works Included:CritiasCritoEryxiasEuthydemusEuthyphroIonLachesLesser HippiasLysisMenexenusMenoParmenidesPhaedoPhaedrusPhilebusProtagorasSophistStatesmanSymposium

This is The Republic of Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett. It was written by Plato around 380 BC concerning the definition of justice and the parliamentary law and character of the just city-state and huhumankind being . It is Plato's best-known work employment and has proven to be one of the most intellectually and historically influential works of philosophy of thought and political theory . In it, Socrates along with various Athenians and foreigners discuss the meaning of justice and examine whether or not the just man is happier than the unjust man by considering a series of different cities coming climax into existence creation "in speech", spoken language ", culminating in a city urban center ruled by philosopher-kings; and by examining the nature of existing regimes. The participants also discuss the theory of forms, the immortality of the soul, and the roles of the philosopher and of poetry in society order .This version of the book is annotated.

Gathers translations of Plato's works and includes guidance on approaching their reading and study

The Theaetetus is one of Plato's dialogues concerning the nature of knowledge, written circa 369 BCE.In this dialogue, Socrates and Theaetetus discuss three definitions of knowledge: knowledge as nothing but perception, knowledge as true judgment, and, finally, knowledge as a true judgment with an account. Each of these definitions is shown to be unsatisfactory.Socrates declares Theaetetus will have benefited from discovering what he does not know, and that he may be better able to approach the topic in the future. The conversation ends with Socrates' announcement that he has to go to court to face a criminal indictment.

The Works of Plato: Analysis of Plato & The Republic are original Cosimo editions of a four-volume work, translated and analyzed by Benjamin Jowett. All of the works contained within are also published as separate works, but the four-volume set has added commentary from Jowett, considered one of the best translators of Plato's works. There are three editions in the Cosimo set; Volumes I and II make up the first book, and Volumes III and IV make up the second and third books. This set is ideal for any scholar of Plato and philosophy, whether amateur or seasoned. Volume I is an analysis of Plato's life and writings, concentrating on Plato's philosophy and background. Volume II is Plato's celebrated work, The Republic. These first two volumes are the perfect introduction for anyone reading Plato for the first time. One of the greatest Western philosophers who ever lived, Plato (c. 428-347 B.C.) was a student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle. Plato was greatly influenced by Socrates' teachings, often using him as a character in scripts and plays (Socratic dialogues), which he used to demonstrate philosophical ideas. Plato's dialogues were and still are used to teach a wide range of subjects, including politics, mathematics, rhetoric, logic, and, naturally, philosophy.

The Republic is Plato's most complete and incisive work – a detailed study of the problem of how best to ensure that justice exists in a real society, rather than as merely the product of an idealized philosophical construct. The work considers several competing definitions of justice, and looks closely not only at what exactly a "just life" should be, but also at the ways in which society can organise itself in ways that maximise the opportunities for every member to live justly. Much of the discussion is via imagined dialogues, giving Plato the opportunity to deploy the tools of Socratic debate to remarkable effect; nowhere else, it can be argued, is the Socratic dialectic better exemplified than in The Republic. In large measure, Plato's success is the product of the acute analytical ability that he demonstrates throughout his surviving oeuvre. No one is better at understanding the relationships between the various parts of a successful argument than Plato, and The Republic also demonstrates the Greek philosopher has few peers when it comes to looking for and highlighting the core assumptions that underlie an argument. The demolition of competing views that Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates is based on a series of relentless interventions and counter-examples that this mastery makes possible. Combining analytical skills with great powers of reasoning to produce a well-structured solution that deals emphatically with counter-arguments, Plato crafts one of the most enduring works of philosophy in the entire western canon.

Some dialogues of Plato are of so various a character that their relation to the other dialogues cannot be determined with any degree of certainty. The Theaetetus, like the Parmenides, has points of similarity both with his earlier and his later writings. The perfection of style, the humour, the dramatic interest, the complexity of structure, the fertility of illustration, the shifting of the points of view, are characteristic of his best period of authorship.

Timaeus and Critias is a Socratic dialogue in two parts. A response to an account of an ideal state told by Socrates, it begins with Timaeus’s theoretical exposition of the cosmos and his story describing the creation of the universe, from its very beginning to the coming of man. Timaeus introduces the idea of a creator God and speculates on the structure and composition of the physical world. Critias, the second part of Plato’s dialogue, comprises an account of the rise and fall of Atlantis, an ancient, mighty and prosperous empire ruled by the descendents of Poseidon, which ultimately sank into the sea.

A Plato Reader offers eight of Plato's best-known works--Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo, Symposium, Phaedrus, and Republic--unabridged, expertly introduced and annotated, and in widely admired translations by C. D. C. Reeve, G. M. A. Grube, Alexander Nehamas, and Paul Woodruff. The collection features Socrates as its central character and a model of the examined life. Its range allows us to see him in action in very different settings and philosophical modes: from the elenctic Socrates of the Meno and the dialogues concerning his trial and death, to the erotic Socrates of the Symposium and Phaedrus, to the dialectician of the Republic. Of Reeve's translation of this final masterpiece, Lloyd P. Gerson writes, "Taking full advantage of S. R. Slings' new Greek text of the Republic, Reeve has given us a translation both accurate and limpid. Loving attention to detail and deep familiarity with Plato's thought are evident on every page. Reeve's brilliant decision to cast the dialogue into direct speech produces a compelling impression of immediacy unmatched by other English translations currently available."