Plato's dialogue Phaedo portrays Socrates in prison awaiting execution and discussing with his friends the fate of the soul after death. In this edition, consisting of introduction, text and commentary, Professor Rowe guides the reader through the difficulties--linguistic, literary and philosophical--of individual passages and of the dialogue as a whole. The comparative beginner is not neglected, but the commentary is intended for any student, classical scholar, or philosopher with an interest in the close reading of Plato.
Table of Contents
Introduction: 1. Literature and philosophy; 2. Plato's conception of philosophy; 3. The aims of Plato's philosophical writing; 4. The Phaedo and Pythagoreanism; 5. The 'theory of forms'; 6. Platonic conceptions of the soul; 7. Myths and philosophy; 8. The Phaedo and the Platonic corpus; 9. The text of the Phaedo; 10. Select bibliography; The Phaedo; Commentary.
