Sokrates' leven en dood: Feest (Symposium)/Euthyfron/Sokrates' verdediging/Kriton/Faidon

by Plato, Gerard Koolschijn (Translator)

Genres: Philosophy

248 pages, Paperback

Published January 15, 2025

About the author

Plato (Greek: Πλάτων), born Aristocles (c. 427 – 348 BC), was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms. He raised problems for what became all the major areas of both theoretical philosophy and practical philosophy, and was the founder of the Platonic Academy, a philosophical school in Athens where Plato taught the doctrines that would later become known as Platonism.
Plato's most famous contribution is the theory of forms (or ideas), which has been interpreted as advancing a solution to what is now known as the problem of universals. He was decisively influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, although much of what is known about them is derived from Plato himself.
Along with his teacher Socrates, and Aristotle, his student, Plato is a central figure in the history of philosophy. Plato's entire body of work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years—unlike that of nearly all of his contemporaries. Although their popularity has fluctuated, they have consistently been read and studied through the ages. Through Neoplatonism, he also greatly influenced both Christian and Islamic philosophy. In modern times, Alfred North Whitehead famously said: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."

Reviews

[Martijn van Duivenboden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deze uitgave stond al 25 jaar in de kast voor ik hem las. Natuurlijk kende ik al delen van deze bundel. Het verhaal van Socrates is ook bekend en in deze vertaling, ook 25 jaar later, fris en toegankelijk. Niet dat je dit meteen moet lezen als je je voor het eerst wilt verdiepen in de oorsprong van de filosofie. De zinnen zijn lang en kunnen slaapverwekkend zijn. Ik was aangedaan door de naïviteit waarmee sommige onderwerpen werden bediscussieerd. Je moet deze verslagen dan ook alleen maar lezen in hun tijdsgeest. Al is de methode die Socrates hanteert natuurlijk iets van alle tijden. Dat we zijn manier van denken en vooral ook het uiterst beschaafd en respectvol met elkaar redeneren ook nu mogen doen.