Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus: English Text

by Plato

Publisher:

Harvard University Press

, 1914

Overview

This volume contains W. R. M. Lamb’s translation of Plato’s Euthyphro, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus, and his account of Socrates’ trial for treason: Apology.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Well then, what is dear to the gods is holy, [7] and what is not dear to them is unholy.” (Page 23)

“For to fear death, gentlemen, is nothing else than to think one is wise when one is not; for it is thinking one knows what one does not know. For no one knows whether death be not even the greatest of all blessings to man, but they fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils. [B] And is not this the most reprehensible form of ignorance, that of thinking one knows what one does not know?” (Page 107)

“We believe, do we not, that death is the separation of the soul from the body, and that the state of being dead is the state in which the body is separated from the soul and exists alone by itself and the soul is separated from the body and exists alone by itself? Is death anything other than this?’ ‘No, it is this,’ said he.” (Pages 223–225)

“Is that which is holy loved by the gods because it is holy, or is it holy because it is loved by the gods?” (Page 35)

“For, if pure knowledge is impossible while the body is with us, one of two thing must follow, either it cannot be acquired at all or only when we are dead; for then the soul [67] will be by itself apart from the body, but not before. And while we live, we shall, I think, be nearest to knowledge when we avoid, so far as possible, intercourse and communion with the body, except what is absolutely necessary, and are not filled with its nature, but keep ourselves pure from it until God himself sets us free. And in this way, freeing ourselves from the foolishness of the body and being pure, we shall, I think, be with the pure and shall know of ourselves all that is pure,—[B] and that is, perhaps, the truth. For it cannot be that the impure attain the pure.’” (Pages 231–233)

Product Details

• Title: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus: English Text
• Author: Plato
• Series: The Loeb Classical Library: English
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Print Publication Date: 1914
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Plato › Translations into English
• ISBNs: 0674990404, 9780674990401
• Resource ID: LLS:WRKSPLT01
• Resource Type: text.monograph.ancient-manuscript.translation
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T21:10:31Z

About Plato

Plato (427–347 BC) was born in Athens to an aristocratic family. A student of Socrates until the latter’s death, he also studied the works of Heraclitus, Parmenides, and the Pythagoreans. Following the death of Socrates, Plato spent a number of years traveling around the Mediterranean. He eventually returned to Athens and founded a school of philosophy called the Academy (named for the field in which it was located), where he later taught Aristotle.

Plato wrote works on ethics, politics, morality, epistemology, and metaphysics. He is best known for his theory of forms, the theory that the qualities that define a thing’s existence (redness, beauty) exist in an abstract realm of forms, separate from matter. Plato believed that what was true, and therefore real, must be unchanging. Because the material world is in a constant state of change it is not true reality but a mere illusion. Plato taught that love is the longing for the Beautiful in its purest, most abstract, form. Consequently, love is what motivates all the highest human achievements.