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The Last Days of Socrates

Euthyphro; Apology; Crito; Phaedo

Author Plato

Introduction by Harold Tarrant

Edited by Harold Tarrant

Translated by Hugh Tredennick, Harold Tarrant

Notes by Harold Tarrant

Paperback

$14.00 US

Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Classics

5.08"W x 7.75"H x 0.66"D (12.9 x 19.7 x 1.7 cm) | 8 oz (227 g) | 48 per carton

On sale Apr 29, 2003 | 304 Pages | 9780140449280

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Classics > Classic Nonfiction
Nonfiction > Biography & Memoir
Nonfiction > History > World History > Ancient World History
Nonfiction > Religion & Philosophy > Philosophy

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The trial and death of Socrates (469-399 BCE) have almost as central a place in Western consciousness as the trial and death of Jesus. In four superb dialogues, Plato provides the classic account. Euthyphro finds Socrates outside the court-house, debating the nature of piety, while the Apology is his robust rebuttal of the charges of impiety and a defence of the philosopher's life. In the Crito, while awaiting execution in prison, Socrates counters the arguments of friends urging him to escape. Finally, in the Phaedo, he is shown calmly confident in the face of death, skilfully arguing the case for the immortality of the soul.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Plato, with Socrates and Aristotle, is the founder of the Western intellectual tradition. Like his mentor Socrates, he was essentially a practical philosopher who found the abstract theory and visionary schemes of many contemporary thinkers misguided and sterile. He was born about 429 BCE in Athens, the son of a prominent family that had long been involved in the city's politics. Extremely little survives of the history of Plato's youth, but he was raised in the shadow of the great Peloponnesian War, and its influence must have caused him to reject the political career open to him and to become a follower of the brilliantly unorthodox Socrates, the self-proclaimed "gadfly" of Athens. Socrates' death in 399 BCE turned Plato forever from politics, and in the next decade he wrote his first dialogues, among them Apology and Euthyphro. At age 40, Plato visited Italy and Syracuse, and upon his return he founded the Academy-Europe's first university—in a sacred park on the outskirts of Athens. The Academy survived for a millennium, finally closed by the emperor Justinian in 529. Plato hoped his school would train its pupils to carry out a life of service and to investigate questions of science and mathematics. Plato's old age was probably devoted to teaching and writing, he died in Athens in 348 BCE. View titles by Plato

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The Last Days of SocratesChronology
Preface
General Introduction
Further Reading
A Note on the Texts

Euthyphro—Holiness
Socrates in Confrontation

Apology

—Justice and Duty (i)
Socrates Speaks at his Trial

Crito

—Justice and Duty (ii)
Socrates in Prison

Phaedo

—Wisdom and the Soul
Socrates about to Die

Postscript: The Theory of Ideas in the Phaedo

Notes
Index

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