PDF Plato Meno Focus Philosophical Library Plato George Anastaplo Laurence Berns Books

Product details Paperback 96 pages Publisher Focus (March 1, 1998) Language English ISBN-10 0941051714

Plato Meno Focus Philosophical Library Plato George Anastaplo Laurence Berns Books Reviews

• The lay out is very nice. I plan to collect all in the series of Plato's Dialogues. In fact, I already have 4 more.
• This translation has a sketch of all the steps in the geometrical proof that Socrates takes the slave boy through, a very useful guide for the beginner in philosophy.
• Well it's Plato! To millennia of people have reviewed Plato.
• I only ordered this for a class at school. I'm not into literature, but I gave this 5 stars in regards to reaching on time, and being in good condition
• I find Plato annoying yet fascinating. His method of questioning is one I would personally like to model.
  Great fast read.
• Note this review is intended only to comment on the translation of the Meno by Laurence Berns and George Anastaplo, published by Focus Philosophical Library. Another reviewer commented that the system appended it to a commentary on the Meno published by Cambridge. I haven't read that book, so if you're looking for reviews on that, please ignore this one.
  
  The Meno is one of the best dialogues to read for an introduction to some of Plato's characteristic themes. It is generally regarded as an early "Socratic" work, and really ought to be read along with the "trial and death of Socrates" cycle (Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo), since it is here that we are introduced to one of Socrates' accusers (Anytus). The discussion with both Meno (who admires Socrates for being somewhat like the sophist Gorgias, with whom he was friends in Thessaly) and Anytus (who despises Socrates because he groups him with the sophists) helps to give some idea of the way he was perceived by some of his fellow Athenians, and helps us understand why he may have later been put on trial (for a fuller understanding, of course, you have to know about what changes were taking place in the political climate of Athens as a result of the recent war). We also get to see here the character of Socrates, and get excellent examples of the "Socratic method" of asking questions that encourage his interlocutor to take a stand, and then to examine that stance to see whether it is stable, and then insisting that the stance be revised when it is shown to harbor inconsistencies. What is fascinating, too, is how at the same time as Socrates leads Meno to commit himself in words (logos), he also tacitly leads Meno to reveal himself in "deed" (ergon), to be unstable in his character and easily swayed by the persuasion of others and unwilling to push himself beyond his narrow preconception that the best way to be is to become wealthy and powerful, and at the same time to live up to general expectations based on class.
  
  While this is clearly a "Socratic" work it also gives one of the clearest and most straightforward introductions to the "Platonic" doctrine of the "forms," that may at the same time help to challenge some of the cartoonish accounts of the theory. Socrates asks Meno to give him the "form" of virtue - and we often think that what he is asking for is a definition, but the dialogue itself suggests something different. He tells Meno that he should state the form of virtue after the model of how he expresses the form of "shape" it is "that which alone of all the things that are, which always happens to accompany color." Of course Meno finds that unsatisfactory as a definition, and presses Socrates to define it more clearly, which he does by giving something like a geometrical definition of shape (in terms of lines or limits) and a physical definition of color (as the perceptual effect of the "effluences" given off by things). But Socrates says that the kind of account he wants of virtue is more like the one he first gave of shape, rather than like these more technical definitions. He had first described shape as that which follows or accompanies color. It's worth noting that to define shape in terms of color is roughly how a painter defines shape by painting colors that allow the shape to emerge and show itself. Perhaps the "form" of a thing is not so much like a technical definition and is more like the unifying quality that makes of many elements a whole and lets it be seen for what it is. (The notes to the book clarify that the Greek word "eidos" that is translated as "form" has a colloquial meaning that suggest something like "the look" of the thing - whatever it is about the thing that allows us to recognize it as what it is.) The point above all in this dialogue, which is inconclusive if you think the aim was to find a "necessary and sufficient" set of conditions for virtue and its acquisition, is to lead Meno (and us) as readers to be able to see virtue itself, to paint a picture of virtuous activity that lets it appear.
  
  The dialogue also introduces clearly famous Platonic themes such as the "doctrine of recollection," the idea that "virtue is knowledge," the theme of Socratic wisdom, and the importance of the "aporetic" moment. A high and memorable point of the dialogue is, of course, the discussion with Meno's slave boy, in which Socrates leads him towards a discovery of a special case of the Pythagorean theorem, as an illustration of the possibility of knowledge by recollection. One reason to use this edition of the Meno is because of the extremely helpful notes, and especially the clear diagrams they give in order to show what lines Socrates was likely to be referring to as he went through the discussion with the slave boy. Another reason to pick this one up is that the translation manages to balance the needs of clarity in English, with the importance of fidelity to the ancient Greek original. Following along in the notes makes it easy to tell how they translated the key terms, and how and why they made choices when there is some uncertainty about the original, but what's nice is that the notes don't get in the way and you can turn to them or not depending on your needs. Highly recommended reading and this is the translation I'd recommend.
• The " edition" isn't of Plato's Meno, by Dominic Scott...
• If you have not yet studied Plato, Meno is a good, rather, excellent, place to start. It is a simple Platonic dialogue of Plato explaining geometry and ethical issues to Meno, while he draws them out with a stick in the sand to illustrate his point.
  
  There isn't much to say about this book, except buy it if you are at all interested in philosophy and if you are not, then this is a good place to start because without philosophy, how do you think? At least, that's what Plato might say, certainly Aristotle might argue this... Seneca would... others certainly and i can only imagine Marcus Aurelius, the great Stoic philosopher.
  
  sadi ranson