Category: Socratic Dialogues – Synopses :)!

The Seventh Letter! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, John Harward translation).

Themes: On principles/qualities necessary for fusion/union of philosophical with political character, On testing whether one possesses true philosophic spirit/temper, On the difference between the quality of a thing and its essence, On the defective nature of our senses and the four instruments (name, definition, image, knowledge) for acquisition of truth, On the limits of counsel … Continue reading The Seventh Letter! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, John Harward translation). →

Parmenides! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation).

THEMES: On the concept of participation in forms/ideas, On the science of One, On the doctrine of Ideas and Being, A critique of Platonic ideas and Eleatic doctrine of Being, On the difficulty of the whole, An investigation into the notions of sameness-oneness-otherness-greatness-smallness-becoming-time-equality-likeness-otherness, An exposition on the positive and negative hypotheses of the being/non-being of the one and the … Continue reading Parmenides! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation). →

Timaeus! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation)

THEMES:   On the nature of the universe, On sensation - nature of flesh and of the mortal soul, On pains and pleasure, On smells, On hearing, On colors, On the phenomena of respiration, On the generation of different species of animals, On the formation of the State, On the generation of the world and creation of man, Inquiry into creation of body and its members and … Continue reading Timaeus! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation) →

Menexenus! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation)

THEMES:  An exhortation for the younger generations to imitate the virtues of their fathers and honor the nobility of their ancestry … SOCRATES: Whence come you, Menexenus? Are you from the Agora? MENEXENUS: Yes, Socrates; I have been at the Council. SOCRATES: And what might you be doing at the Council? And yet I need hardly ask, for … Continue reading Menexenus! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation) →

Ion! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation)

THEMES:   On whether rhapsodes give their poetic performances by rules of art, skill/knowledge or by virtue of inspiration/divine possession…  PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates, Ion. SOCRATES: Welcome, Ion. Are you from your native city of Ephesus? ION: No, Socrates; but from Epidaurus, where I attended the festival of Asclepius. SOCRATES: And do the Epidaurians have contests … Continue reading Ion! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation) →

Lysis! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation)

THEMES:   On the nature of friendship, In search of the proper definition of a friend, On the difference between essential and accidental qualities, On the "Truly Dear" as perhaps the end or ultimate principle of friendship,......... PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates, who is the narrator, Menexenus, Hippothales, Lysis, Ctesippus.  SCENE: A newly-erected Palaestra outside the walls of Athens.  I … Continue reading Lysis! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation) →

Laches! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation)

THEMES: On the education of children/young people/youth, Acquisition of the gift of Virtue as the End of Education, On the difference between fearlessness and courage, An attempt to define Courage, On the definition of the fearful and the hopeful, A delineation of the various types of knowledge, LYSIMACHUS: You have seen the exhibition of the man fighting in armour, Nicias and … Continue reading Laches! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation) →

Second Alcibiades! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation)

THEMES: On the danger/risk/difficulty of offering prayers while devoid of the knowledge of the best, On the difference between a clever artist and a wise man, SOCRATES: ... you seem to be troubled and to cast your eyes on the ground, as though you were thinking about something.  ALCIBIADES: Of what do you suppose that I am … Continue reading Second Alcibiades! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation) →

Hippias Minor! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation)

THEME: Discussion about who are the better – those who intentionally err or those who do so involuntarily? EUDICUS: Why are you silent, Socrates, after the magnificent display which Hippias has been making? Why do you not either refute his words, if he seems to you to have been wrong in any point, or join with us in … Continue reading Hippias Minor! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation) →

First Alcibiades! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation)

THEMES: On the essence of politics, on war and peace, weighing on whether justice and expediency are really disparate, on the nature of justice and injustice, on the ruling principle in man, on the meaning of the Delphian inscription “Know thyself” SOCRATES: I dare say that you may be surprised to find, O son of Cleinias, … Continue reading First Alcibiades! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation) →

Euthyphro! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation)

THEMES: An investigation into the meaning of piety, On the difference between fear and reverence, An illustration that the act precedes the state, EUTHYPHRO: Why have you left the Lyceum, Socrates? and what are you doing in the Porch of the King Archon? Surely you cannot be concerned in a suit before the King, like myself?  SOCRATES: Not … Continue reading Euthyphro! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation) →

Cratylus! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation)

THEMES: Origin and etymology of Greek Language, Whether names are natural or conventional, the truth/correctness of names or the natural fitness of names, an examination on whether falsehood is impossible,... HERMOGENES: I should explain to you, Socrates, that our friend Cratylus has been arguing about names; he says that they are natural and not conventional; not a portion of … Continue reading Cratylus! (Synopsis – highlights & unredacted quotes lifted from the Socratic dialogue by Plato, Benjamin Jowett translation) →