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Plato

A Very Short Introduction

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Plato

By: Julia Annas
Narrated by: Julia Whelan
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About this listen

This lively and accessible introduction to Plato focuses on the philosophy and argument of his writings, drawing the listener into Plato's way of doing philosophy, and the general themes of his thinking. It looks at Plato as a thinker grappling with philosophical problems in a variety of ways, rather than a philosopher with a fully worked-out system. It includes a brief account of Plato's life and the various interpretations that have been drawn from the sparse remains of information. It stresses the importance of the founding of the Academy and the conception of philosophy as a subject. Julia Annas discusses Plato's style of writing: his use of the dialogue form, his use of what we today call fiction, and his philosophical transformation of myths. She also looks at his discussions of love and philosophy, his attitude to women, and to homosexual love, explores Plato's claim that virtue is sufficient for happiness, and touches on his arguments for the immortality of the soul and his ideas about the nature of the universe.

©2003 Julia Annas (P)2021 Tantor Greek & Roman History Philosophers Philosophy Professionals & Academics Mythology
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It is helpful to have the main themes of Plato summarised in this way, but the author very strangely often seems to contradict in her interpretation the evidence from the text that she has just provided. At one point, she even seems to contradict the empirical evidence of recent history, saying that Plato's semi-feminist views are unrealstic and therefore have had no impact on the real world, despite his views describing almost exactly what has actually occurred in the last two centuries, with women entering into co-education and the co-workforce, and childcare largely being taken over by childcare centers and schools, almost exactly as Plato's text had just recommended according to the author's own summary.

Regardless, her paraphrasing of Plato's and Socrates' ideas is helpful, even if her commentary is sometimes oddly detatched from what she has just summarised.

A flawed but helpful summary

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