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Plato: Gorgias | |||
Plato's Gorgias 2007 • 978-1-58510-243-3 • paper • 246 pages • 5½ x 8½ • $12.95 Plato’s Gorgias is the newest edition to the Focus Philosophical library, a series of inexpensive modern translations designed to provide contemporary students with access to the world's greatest thinkers. | About the Authors | Table of Contents | Preface | Review | | |||
Description This text includes: A complete close translation. Abundant notes on the text to aid modern students in understanding. Appendixes: Speeches from Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian Wars – The only literal translations of several key speeches that reflect themes of Plato’s Gorgias Rules of Socratic Dialectic Derivable from the Gorgias – derived from the arguments of the Gorgias Mythos and Logos – Plato’s use of these terms Glossary that is thorough and informative of many key words and concepts. A complete bibliography and index.
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James A. Arieti is the Graves H. Thompson Professor of Classics at Hampden-Sydney College. He has published extensively on Classics and ancient philosophy. Roger M. Barrus is Elliott Professor of Political Science at Hampden-Sydney College. He has published numerous articles on political philosophy.
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Preface
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One of the older English meanings of translation is the conveyance of a person from earth to heaven without death. It is, alas, beyond the power of academic translators, even in our modern computer age, to accomplish that task, but, in a sense, those who undertake to translate Plato do try, within the laws of physics, to transcend the constraints of place and time in order to transport the words of a man who lived two and a half thousand years ago in the tranquil air of the Aegean to our world, where the atmosphere is tempest-tossed with an infinity of electronic digits. The transport of Plato’s thought and the metamorphosing of his language into our idiom is to take his soul, as it were, to a different realm, not of heaven, but where the great thinker may continue to exert his influence upon the living. While it is, to be sure, an imperfect transport, it is nevertheless the only one available to mere human beings.In preparing this translation, we have tried to produce a rendering as faithful as possible to the best Greek edition. We have also tried to be true to Plato’s spirit as we understand it. Where consistency of translation is possible, we have worked hard to be consistent. When, however, the connotative range of a word in Greek would not allow for a consistent translation in English without damage to an understanding, we have used a different word, and, where the substitution was of an important word, we have indicated the change in the footnotes. We have tried, as far as English will allow, to catch some of the word-play of Plato’s Greek—his puns, his quips, his parodies. Where this has been impossible for us to do in English but where the playfulness is important to the meaning, we again have written a footnote. We are aware that having to read a footnote to understand a text is a handicap, but we hope that the passage of two and a half thousand years will mitigate the blame that attends this practice
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Arieti and Barrus have provided us with a fine contribution to the literature on Plato’s Gorgias. This text includes a literal translation of the Gorgias with a helpful introductory essay, and copious notes. It includes a priceless appendix of the only literal translations available today of several key speeches from Thucydides, as well as a valuable glossary and appendices on the rules of dialectic that may be derived from the arguments of the Gorgias, and on Plato’s use of the terms mythos and logos, with which not all scholars may agree, but which I think all should find of interest. ~Michael Palmer, University of Maine
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