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Product Description
Book Description
Thomas G. West's introduction provides an overview of the principal themes and arguments of the four works. There are extensive explanatory notes to the translations. For this new edition, Thomas West has revised the introduction and updated the annotated bibliography, which includes the best of the secondary literature on Socrates and on the texts included in this book.
In their translations, the Wests capture successfully the simplicity and vigor of straightforward Greek diction. They strive for as high a degree of accuracy as possible, subordinating concerns for elegance and smoothness to the goal of producing the most faithful and most reliable English versions of these texts.
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Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
the best English translations available,
By Yours Truly (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Four Texts on Socrates (Paperback)
To date, this remains by far the best available English translation of Plato's _Euthyphro_, _Apology_, and _Crito_, and certainly the best English translation of Aristophanes' _Clouds_.The major flaw in West & West's translation is their rendering of "phronimos" at _Apology_ 22a, 29e, and 36c as "prudent" (see their note 33 on p. 70). Insignificant though it may seem, West & West are really forcing upon the reader an interpretation that is not required by Plato's Greek; their translation of these passages has the practical effect of entirely begging the question of what it is that Socrates has in mind when he speaks of virtue in the _Apology_. Presumably, they assume that it is sufficiently clear that Socrates has in mind specifically *practical* wisdom in these passages. The Greek word, however, does not particularly connote prudence except in Aristotle, who obviously uses it as a technical term. It is worth noting that at Apology 25c, 28d, and 29e "to give thought to" is the rendering West & West give to "phrontizein". What would otherwise be an obvious connection is obscured by their translation of these two crucial words in Plato's text. To maintain consistency and to avoid begging important questions, West & West could perhaps have translated "phronimos" as "thoughtful" instead of "prudent". At least "thoughtful" in English has enough ambiguity to leave open the question of what Socrates is exhorting when he exhorts everyone to be as "phronimos" as possible (29e and 36c; compare 30b, 31b, 39d, 41e). This, I take it, is the paramount interpretative problem facing readers of Plato's _Apology_, whatever translation they use. This flaw in West & West's translation shouldn't keep English readers from using their translation, since the alternatives offer even greater impediments to interpreting Plato.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Help for Teachers,
By John Russon (Toronto ON Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Four Texts on Socrates (Paperback)
This is an outstanding translation of these Greek texts. These are texts that many of us regularly teach in introductory classes, and it is a great help to have such a reliable translation: the translation is clear and accessible, but maintains an unusually strict adherence to the form of the original Greek. This makes it useful for advanced study as well. The running footnotes to the text are especially helpful for giving students the relevant points of historical and legal context for understanding Socrates's position, but they are sparse enough that they do not intrude in the interpretation of the text. This is the only translation of these texts that I will use in my courses.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Model translation,
By Alexander Alderman "neophyte classical philol... (Providence, Rhode Island) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Four Texts on Socrates (Paperback)
This is a real rarity in Platonic scholarship--a synoptic translation of four important works on the life of Socrates; in other words, the translators use the same English words to convey the same important Greek terms in each of their translations in order to aid the reader in recognizing how those terms evolve in meaning and shape the drama of each of the works, or in short, in recognizing the dialogue which exists between the works rather than merely within them. A former reviewer seems to have missed the point of this work: if you want someone to TELL YOU WHAT PLATO MEANS, you can read a two line summary in an encyclopedia, but if you want to find out why Plato went and wrote an entire dialogue rather than a two line summary, you have to pay close attention to what he actually says. These translations are about as close as you can get without having advanced knowledge of Greek, and even then, the Wests note specific usages of key terms which even a native speaker of ancient Greek might not have noticed on a first reading, and which are largely ignored by the scholarly community. This is an ideal translation for students of politics, history, philosophy, and classical literature who want to know why the most profound and poetic civilization of antiquity put the first philosopher to death, and why he let them.
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