Gorgias

by Plato, Walter Hamilton (Translator), Chris Emlyn-Jones (Translator), Chris Emlyn-Jones (Introduction), Chris Emlyn-Jones (Commentaries by)

Overview

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 fascinating insights into how classical Athens was governed, as well as creating a theoretical framework that has been highly influential on subsequent political debate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140449044
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/29/2004
Series:	Penguin Classics Series
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	195,211
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.82(h) x 0.49(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.) founded the Academy in Athens, the prototype of all Western universities, and wrote more than twenty philosophical dialogues.  

Walter Hamilton taught at Cambridge, Eton and Rugby and translated several Platonic texts for Penguin Classics.

Chris Emlyn-Jones teaches in the department of Classical Studies at the Open University and has published on Homer and Plato.

Table of Contents

GorgiasAcknowledgments
Reference System Used in this Edition
Chronolgy
Introduction
Further Reading
A Note on the Text

Gorgias
A: Dialogue with Gorgias
B: Dialogue with Polus
C: Dialogue with Callicles

Notes
Glossary of Greek Terms
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The admired qualities of Dodds's works, a scholarship both exact and deep, an economy and lucidity in exposition (Dodds has few rivals in saying much in the fewest words with absolute clarity), and an immense level-headedness and sobriety which combined with the sharpest acumen and independence of judgment in the handling of evidence is never seduced by the charm of fantasy, all these once more characterize his edition of the Gorgias."—Philosophical Quarterly

"Professor Dodds's fine edition (which both overhauls the manuscript tradition and supplies a commentary as wide ranging as it is perspicacious) fills a gap untouched in this country since 1890....The Gorgias should have a special appeal to contemporary students, and to historians no less than philosophers."—Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher