Plato's World: Man's Place in the Cosmos

by Joseph Cropsey

In this culmination of a lifetime's study, Joseph Cropsey examines the crucial relationship between Plato's conception of the nature of the universe and his moral and political thought.

Cropsey interprets seven of Plato's dialogues— Theaetetus , Euthyphro , Sophist , Statesman , Apology , Crito , and Phaedo —in light of their dramatic consecutiveness and thus as a conceptual and dramatic whole. The cosmos depicted by Plato in these dialogues, Cropsey argues, is often unreasonable, and populated by human beings unaided by gods and dealt with equivocally by nature. Masterfully leading the reader through the seven scenes of the drama, Cropsey shows how they are, to an astonishing degree, concerned with the resources available to help us survive in such a world.

This is a world—and a Plato—quite at odds with most other portraits. Much more than a summary of Plato's thinking, this book is an eloquent, sometimes amusing, often moving guide to the paradoxes and insights of Plato's philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy

237 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 1995

Reviews

[Will Spohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The interpretation of Plato and Socratic philosophy presented here seems strikingly darker than what I have been used to. As I have understood Socrates, and the ancients on the whole, it seems that while the standard for ordinary political life was lowered in light of the difficulty which surrounded its heights, that the standard for man and the possibility of his excellence and happiness were raised above and grounded in nature. That is, it seems to me like the ancients differed from the moderns. Cropsey seems to present a Plato and Socrates which at their core are almost the same as the moderns. To put it briefly, as Cropsey seems to see it, the philosopher at his best still must be a poet.

That being said, the book was still very good. It parsed through some of the most difficult dialogues which I certainly still don’t understand and it made some very interesting points and interpretive remarks, so I by no means would call it shallow or wrong. Another point which may be demonstrative is that Cropsey focuses on the philosopher as motivated by thumos, while eros seems to be somewhat insignificant or unimportant.

[Popebrak · Rating 4 out of 5]

"His [Socrates'] own care for the Athenians seems to reveal itself in his effort to conceal from them their human loneliness and to make up for it, as far as possible, with a simple theology of the nameless god. . . . What could better illuminate the paradox of the human condition than this act of human caring for man on the part of one who teaches that the oblivious deity is diligent in righteousness?" - p.165