On Manly Courage

Walter T. Schmid offers the first original interpretation of the Laches since Hermann Bonitz in the nineteenth century in the only full-length commentary on the Laches available in English. Schmid divides the book into five main discussions: the historical background of the dialogue; the relation of form and content in a Platonic dialogue and specific structural and aesthetic features of the Laches; the first half of the dialogue, which introduces the characters and considers the theme of the education of young men; the inquiry with Laches, which examines the traditional Greek conception of military courage; and the inquiry with Nicias in which two nontraditional conceptions of courage are mooted, one closely associated with the sophistic movement in Athens, the other with Socrates himself. Furnishing a detailed paragraph-by-paragraph reading that traces Socrates' ongoing quest for virtue and wisdom--a wisdom founded in the action of a whole human life--Schmid conclusively shows how and why the Laches fills an important niche in Plato's moral theory.

This text examines American norms of masculinity and their role in the law, with essays from legal academics, literary scholars, and judges. Together, these papers reinvigorate the law-and-literature movement by bringing a range of methodological and disciplinary perspectives to bear on the complex interactions of masculinity with both law and literature - ultimately shedding light on all three.

In this book, W. Thomas Schmid demonstrates that the Charmides -- a platonic dialogue seldom referenced in contemporary studies -- is a microcosm of Socratic philosophy. He explores the treatment of the Socratic dialectic, the relation between it and the Socratic notion of self-knowledge, the Socratic ideal of rationality and self-restraint, the norm of holistic and moral health, the interpretation of the soul as the rational self, the Socratic attitude toward democracy, and the connections between dialectic autonomy and moral community. Schmid argues that the depiction and account of sophrosune -- human moderation -- in the Charmides adumbrates Plato's vision of the life of critical reason, and of its uneasy relation to political life in the ancient city.

A translation of a German humanist tract written popularly for a wide audience by Josef Popper (1838-1921), most widely known by the pseudonym "Lynkeus." On the first page, Popper provides the ethical ideal that is meant to serve as the foundation for his program of social reform: "The obliteration of any individual who has not willfully or forcibly endangered another...is a much more important event than all the political, religious, and national events, and all scientific, artistic, and technical progress of all centuries and people taken together." Introduction by Joram Graf Haber. Paper edition (unseen), $21.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR