The State Versus Socrates

This fresh outlook on Socrates' political philosophy in Plato's early dialogues argues that it is both more subtle and less authoritarian than has been supposed. Focusing on the Crito, Richard Kraut shows that Plato explains Socrates' refusal to escape from jail and his acceptance of the death penalty as arising not from a philosophy that requires blind obedience to every legal command but from a highly balanced compromise between the state and the citizen. In addition, Professor Kraut contends that our contemporary notions of civil disobedience and generalization arguments are not present in this dialogue.

In unraveling the long-hidden issues of the most famous free speech case of all time, noted author I.F. Stone ranges far and wide over Roman as well as Greek history to present an engaging and rewarding introduction to classical antiquity and its relevance to society today. The New York Times called this national best-seller an "intellectual thriller."

The Republic is Plato's most famous work and one of the seminal texts of Western philosophy and politics. The characters in this Socratic dialogue - including Socrates himself - discuss whether the just or unjust man is happier. They are the philosopher-kings of imagined cities and they also discuss the nature of philosophy and the soul among other things.

THE Republic of Plato is the longest of his works with the exception of the Laws, and is certainly the greatest of them. There are nearer approaches to modern metaphysics in the Philebus and in the Sophist; the Politicus or Statesman is more ideal; the form and institutions of the State are more clearly drawn out in the Laws; as works of art, the Symposium and the Protagoras are of higher excellence. But no other Dialogue of Plato has the same largeness of view and the same perfection of style; no other shows an equal knowledge of the world, or contains more of those thoughts which are new as well as old, and not of one age only but of all. Nowhere in Plato is there a deeper irony or a greater wealth of humour or imagery, or more dramatic power. Nor in any other of his writings is the attempt made to interweave life and speculation, or to connect politics with philosophy. Aeterna Press

These new translations present Plato's remarkable dramatization of the momentous events surrounding the trial of Socrates in 399 BC, on charges of irreligion and corrupting the young. The Euthyphro, Defence of Socrates, and Crito form a dramatic and thematic sequence, raising fundamentalquestions about the basis of moral, religious, legal, and political obligation. Plato explores these issues with a freshness and directness that have never been surpassed. In the Defence of Socrates, Plato seeks not only to clear his master's name, but also to defend the whole Socratic way of life, and therefore philosophy itself. The result is an oratorical masterpiece. The Euthyphro, an inquiry into the nature of piety, probes the relationship between religion andmorality. The Crito discusses the citizen's obligation to the state, in the context of a life-or-death issue confronting Socrates himself - whether or not to escape from prison. David Gallop's Introduction provides a stimulating philosophical and historical analysis of these texts, complemented by useful explanatory notes and an index of names, to make this edition invaluable to readers new to these timeless classics.

With valuable historical and cultural descriptions of Socrates' Athens, James Colaiaco evokes the scene and sense of the great philosopher's trial. Socrates against Athens explores both sides of the tragic collision of values between the philosopher and the state, engaging the fundamental question of whether philosophy and politics are compatible. The complexity and significance of the trial is illuminated through discussion of such important elements as the nature of Athenian democracy, the polis ideal, Greek shame culture, Athenian religion, civil disobedience, and Socrates' rejection of politics.

The Last Days of Socrates is a work of a great ancient thinker and philosopher Plato.This book gives a curious reader all the details of a trial over Socrates, a narration of the great philosopher's speeches, and the reasons why so-called democrats from Athens hated Socrates are analyzed.With Socrates, democrats decided to show an example that would threaten the others. Nobody cared to find out whether the accusations, laid on the whole new choplogic philosophy which leader was claimed, not really justified, to be Socrates, referred to him. He fell victim to a democratic reaction. Socrates was sentenced to death not for his political views, because he had never antagonized or disobeyed the democracy; and not because of personal rage he was chosen to be a victim, but only because there was a need to strike at the followers of new religious ideas, and this strike had to be heavy; and of course, it was the heavier, the heavier was the person's position against whom it was pointed. Moreover, Socrates's study had an element that was actually contrary to the ideas of a whole ancient world. Socrates said that a person should not obey unconditionally law, traditions and conceptions of his state, but follow his own thoughts and go by own ideas in his political activity. It seemed especially dangerous to the founders of the new democracy of Athens. It could not allow a person to avoid his civil responsibilities; it could not allow a study that insisted that the power had to belong only to those who knew philosophical truth and that the substitution of positions by lots drawn by all the citizens (as it happened in Athens) was absurd. The democracy could not allow a citizen to obey, as Socrates told about himself in public, more his own inner voice (demon) than the government of Athens.