Gorgias: A Revised Text with Introduction and Commentary

PLATO

ISBN 10: 019814153X / ISBN 13: 9780198141532

Published by Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2001

About this Item

Introduction and commentary by E.R. Dodds. 8vo. Black cloth with gilt spine lettering, pictorial dust jacket. vi, 406pp, (2pp ads). Fine/fine. Pristine and perfect first of this edition, being a "Special edition for Sandpiper Books Ltd." -- a reprint of Oxford's 1959 edition of the 4th century BCE Socratic dialogue.

Seller Inventory # 52327

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Gorgias: A Revised Text with Introduction and Commentary
• Publisher: Clarendon Press, Oxford
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 019814153X
• ISBN 13: 9780198141532
• Binding: Hardcover
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Books
  • Philosophy

About this title

Synopsis

Taking the form of a dialogue between Socrates, Gorgias, Polus and Callicles, the Gorgias debates crucial questions about the nature of government. While the aspiring politician Callicles propounds the view that might is right, and the rhetorician Gorgias argues that oratory and the power to persuade represent 'the greatest good', Socrates insists on the duty of politicians to consider the welfare of their citizens - a duty he believed had been dishonoured in the Athens of his time. The dialogue offers insights into how classical Athens was governed, as well as creating a theoretical framework that has been highly influential on subsequent political debate.

About the Author

Plato (c. 427-c. 347 BC) was an immensely influential ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens where Aristotle studied. E. R. Dodds was a former Regius Professor of Greek, Oxford University, 1936 to 1960.