What do I need to read before Plato?

[Anonymous No.12205568]

[Anonymous No.12205571]

>>12205568
Bowlo

[Anonymous No.12205579]

>>12205568
The greeks

[Anonymous No.12205581]

My diary desu

[Anonymous No.12205599]

Nothing desu.
Most people start philosophy with him.

[Anonymous No.12205607]

>>12205568
https://vocaroo.com/i/s0prmI9Ydql3

[Anonymous No.12205636]

Homer, Hesiod, Tragedians, Presocratics

[Anonymous No.12205640]

>>12205568

[Anonymous No.12205787]

>>12205568
Plato was a nigger. Read Heraklit instead.

[Anonymous No.12205824]

Some book about the pre-Socratics. Skip everyone but Parmenides and Heraclitus if you're lazy.

[Anonymous No.12206153]

>>12205568
stop fucking procrastinating and just READ THE FUCKING BOOK. IF YOU'RE CONFUSED WHILE READING LOOK IT UP, THEN CONTINUE TO READ THE FUCKING BOOK. HOLY SHIT YOU DONT NEED A FUCKING KEY TO OPEN IT.

[Anonymous No.12206181]

Thucydides is good background for The Republic.

[Anonymous No.12207270]

>>12205568
Please don’t start be one of those people who think that reading Plato means reading the Republic. Plato is a treasure of stories and you will seriously lose ur marbles if you think you can read the republic and by pass say Euthyphro, Statesman, Sophist, Parmenides, Charmides, Protagoras, Symposium, etc

[Anonymous No.12207272]

>>12205568
Why do pseuds start at the beginning and work chronologically? It it because that’s how their video games work?

[Anonymous No.12207287]

>>12205636
This
Get to work OP

[Anonymous No.12207309]

>>12205640
came here to say The Wind in the Willows

[Anonymous No.12207312]

>>12207272
?

[Anonymous No.12207332]

Quick question, can anyone speak on the quality of John M Cooper's Plato: Complete Works? I have read several Plato dialogues now for a class, and I would like to read more or most of the rest. Is getting this anthology the way to go or would it be more productive to buy the works individually, as this would provide more extensive introductions and footnotes for each one?

Some reviews of the complete works I've seen say the print is tiny and the pages are thin so I hesitate for that reason too. I'm sure some of Plato's other works are more easily digestible and I could do a fine job understanding them with a free online version, but which would you say require a lot more understanding and would therefor benefit from more writing on the work included?

[Anonymous No.12207390]

>>12205568
A brain maybe some limbs

[Anonymous No.12207530]

>>12207332
bumping for this, and how about for Aristotle? There exists both the two volume complete works and a "Basic Works" that is only 20 dollars. That would be a great deal for nearly all of his major writings, but would it be worth it and comprehensible without many or any notes on each writing? I don't know if Aristotle's writing is any more "self-evident" than plato's

[Anonymous No.12207539]

>>12207332
also bumping for this

[Anonymous No.12209121]

>>12207332
The purpose of the Hackett edition was to provide a compact, one-volume edition containing modern translations all the Platonic dialogues. With that mission comes some drawbacks: the paper is thin (although, I think a new version has slightly different paper) and the text is small. However, on the whole, the drawbacks are worth it: the font isn't really that small and I just underline with pencil instead of pen, but you get a sturdy volume with good translations of the entire Platonic corpus, even the disputed ones. No other modern edition contains the entire corpus. And as for footnotes, I don't think they're really that important in the scheme of things: the Hackett edition has what notes are necessary for comprehension or context, but anything beyond that and you begin to get too much interpretation, imo. If you want help, just read secondary literature.
>>12207530
If the two-volume edition is the Oxford Revised Barnes, it has very sparse footnotes so I would suggest buying the Basic Works, at least for now. And again, secondary literature should be your guide for study, not the text itself. I think this is an unfortunate, but necessary inconvenience as otherwise our translations would be filled with interpretative notes the quality of which is suspect.

[Anonymous No.12209446]

>>12209121
Thank you. Do you have any advice for picking out secondary literature on each work? I'm sure each one could have multiple interpretations, so do most secondary writings focus on one interpretation or are there some that present several as possibilities?

[Anonymous No.12209737]

>>12209446
You won't find secondary literature on every Platonic work (actually, you might in journals but unless you study, work, or live near a Uni those are inaccessible) but you can find plenty of secondary literature for Plato as a whole, and many for his major works like Republic or Timaeus. Most authors are going to offer a single interpretation of Plato, but will likely point out alternatives that could exist—no one can be so confident given Plato's use of irony and his apparent evolution over time. My own interpretation of Plato is that, primarily, he is teaching us to DO philosophy as opposed to teaching us what his philosophy is—which is to say, I think Plato, more than anyone else can be read by an amateur who is just willing to pay attention to every step and question the direction that Plato is going while also being generous to Plato. It's a fine balance, but not impossible—read Plato like you read Lolita.

[Anonymous No.12210572]

[Anonymous No.12210587]

[Anonymous No.12210737]

>>12210572
also this: http://plato-dialogues.org/email/950208_1.htm

[Anonymous No.12211037]

>>12205568
Historical context
After you've got the historical context and you're not underage, you can read him

[Anonymous No.12211091]

>>12205568
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y8_RRaZW5X3xwztjZ4p0XeRplqebYwpmuNNpaN_TkgM/mobilebasic

Pretty comprehensive, but let's be honest, you will never get started

[Anonymous No.12212118]

>>12205568
start with the americans