"The unexamined life is not worth living" Socrates's famous ancient words are still true, and the ideas sounded in Plato's Dialogues still form the foundation of a thinking person's education. This superb collection contains excellent contemporary translations selected for their clarity and accessibility to today's reader, as well as in incisive introduction by Erich Segal, which reveals Plato's life and clarifies the philosophical issues examined in ach dialogue. The first four dialogues recount the trial execution of Socrates - the extraordinary tragedy that changed Plato's life and so altered the course of Western though. Other dialogs create a rich tableau of intellectual life in Athens in the fourth centry B.C., and examine the nature of virtue and love, knowledge and truth, society and the individual. Resounding with the humor and astounding brilliance of Socrates, the immortal iconoclast, these great works remain powerful, probing, and essential."