Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher (Cornell Studies in Classical Philology, 50) - Softcover

Vlastos, Gregory

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801497876 ISBN 13: 9780801497872

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 1991

Synopsis

This vivid and compelling study of Socrates’s moral philosophy and, more generally, of his moral outlook and his attitude toward religion and society, reclaims the remarkable originality of his thought. Gregory Vlastos shows us a Socrates who, though he has been long overshadowed by his successors, Plato and Aristotle, represented the true turning point in Greek attitude toward philosophy, religion, and ethics. In his quest for the historical Socrates, Vlastos focuses on Plato's earlier dialogues, setting the Socrates we find there in sharp contrast to the Socrates of later dialogues, in which he is used as a mouthpiece for Plato's own doctrines, many of them anti-Socratic in nature.

At the heart of the book is Vlastos's perception of the paradoxical nature of Socratic thought. But Vlastos explains the paradoxes rather than explaining them away, and he highlights the tensions in the Socratic search for the answer to the question: How should we live? The magnetic quality of Socrates' personality emerges throughout his book. Clearly and elegantly written, subtle in its arguments yet entirely accessible to non-specialists, this is major work in ancient philosophy and the history of Western thought.

About this title

Book Description:

This long-awaited study of the most enigmatic figure of Greek philosophy reclaims Socrates' originality. Written by a leading historian of Greek thought, it argues for a Socrates who marked the true turning point in Greek philosophy, religion and ethics.

From the Back Cover:

Gregory's new book begins from the conviction that Socrates strangeness is the key to his philosophy. It is a marvelous book, in which no major aspect of Socrates career is eclipsed. The rigor of his arguments, the depth of his moral commitment and understanding, his complex relationship to Athenian ethical traditions, his rational religion: all this comes to life in writing whose vigor and lucidity put the challenge of Socrates squarely before the reader.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0801497876
• ISBN 13: 9780801497872
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 334