Preface and Acknowledgments
Maps
List of Illustrations and Tables
List of Plato's Dialogues
Timeline
Introduction
The Sources
1. Growing Up in Wartime Athens
2. The Intellectual Environment
3. From Politics to Philosophy
4. Southern Italy and Sicily
5. The Academy
6. The Second and Third Visits to Syracuse
7. Last Years
Further Reading
Index
Robin Waterfield is an independent scholar and translator living in southern Greece. Among his numerous translations of Greek works are Plato's Symposium, Gorgias, and Republic, all published in the Oxford World's Classics series. His previous works of history include Creators, Conquerors, and Citizens: A History of Ancient Greece and Taken at the Flood: The Roman Conquest of Greece.
Plato of Athens is erudite and fascinating, and realises its aim of
showing that his works were magnificent, that "Plato invented
philosophy" not as a body of doctrine but an open-ended and
insatiable quest.
*Jane O'Grady, The Telegraph*
If all Western philosophy is as has been claimed a series of
footnotes to Plato of Athens, it's fortunate indeed that all his
dialogues have survived and attracted translators and interpreters
of the caliber of Robin Waterfield. Brilliant, witty, profound--and
perplexing: Plato's all those and more (a uniquely resonant stylist
too), and it's no mean tribute both to him and to the author to say
that Robin Waterfield has done him justice.
*Paul Cartledge, author of Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient
Greece*
Whitehead once characterized the history of Western philosophy as a
series of footnotes to Plato. Here, at last, we have an
authoritative body text for the man himself. 'No philosopher,'
Waterfield writes, 'is as accessible to non-specialists as Plato.'
The same can be said for this remarkable, impeccably researched
biography
*M. D. Usher, author of Plato's Pigs and Other Ruminations*
Writing a biography of Plato is a tricky endeavor, to say the
least. Robin Waterfield nonetheless succeeds in delivering a
gripping, plausible, and enlightening portrait. Those new to Plato
as well as seasoned scholars will come away from Plato of Athens
not only with as rounded a picture of Plato the man as may be
possible, but also with an excellent sense of his philosophy and
the historical times in which he lived and with which he
engaged.
*Iakovos Vasiliou, author of Aiming at Virtue in Plato*
Waterfield evokes [the Academy's] atmosphere superbly. Indeed, the
passages on Plato's teachings, his dialogues and his contribution
to the field of philosophy are a particular strength of the
book...His account of Plato's failure to reform the tyrant
[Dionysius II] and establish a new constitution for him is
particularly well done.
*Daisy Dunn, Literary Review*
Waterfield's narrative is compelling.
*The Atlantic*
Well-researched and attractively written.
*Armand D'Angour, History Today*
An admirably solid overview of Platoâs life and works.
*David Stuttard, British Museum Magazine*
[A] readable and wonderfully enlightening book...a remarkably
successful attempt to paint a believable picture of the
intellectual journey of someone who is unquestionably one of the
great landmarks of European thinking... Plato would have liked
that, and that is the highest praise.
*John Muir, Classics for All*
Learned and highly readable.
*Malcom Schofield, Society*
Well-researched and attractively written.
*Armand D'Angour, History Today*
Engaging and accessible...one of the best books available for those
who are new to Plato...always looks at the evidence with fresh
eyes...a marvelous introductory overview of Plato's philosophy, as
it emerged from his intellectual and political milieu. Furthermore,
there is no better way than the one provided by Waterfield for
beginners to learn about the Academy.
*Richard Kraut, Society*
Well-researched and attractively written.
*Armand D'Angour, History Today*
Nobody is better qualified to write this book than Robin
Waterfield... He does not talk down to the reader, but neither does
he assume any prior knowledge... [a] timely and eloquent book. It
encourages the reader to go back to Plato himself and (re)read
those texts where the dialogue form is so skilfully used to explore
issues which could be a matter of life and death rather than airy
philosophy.
*John Godwin, Journal of Classics Teaching*
Plato of Athens is much to be commended for its discussion
resulting in a comprehensive chronology of Plato's life and
dialogues.
*Andrew David Irvin, TLS*
A full, very readable biography...Give[s] a remarkably full picture
of the man, his ideas and his influence.
*Times Literary Supplement*
A thorough and well-structured account of the events of Plato's
life whilst placing his many dialogues into a clear chronology.
*Sebastian Milbank, The Critic*
A highly accessible and significant contribution.
*Paradigm Explorer*
Attractively fulfils its aim of introducing Platonic philosophy to
a general readership by combining elements of historical
reconstruction with key values extracted from the written work, the
two things synthesised into an imagined portrait of a life.... One
can confidently expect that if indeed some of Waterfield's readers
may never have tackled any of the dialogues for themselves, they
will be stimulated to do so (and in Waterfield's own fine
translations) by his eloquent passion for a 'super-important'
thinker who is now 'read and studied in, I dare say, every country
in the world.'
*Stephen Halliwell, Bryn Mawr Classical Review*
Fascinating and well-written ... a vivid account of Plato's
intellectual background.
*Paradigm Explorer*
Plato of Athens provides readers with an excellent guide for those
beginning the study of this philosopher.
*The Society*
Robin Waterfield's Plato of Athens. A Life in Philosophy offers an
accessible, informative, and useful biography of Plato and the
context of his life.
*Daniel Vazquez, Greece & Rome *
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