The Bloomsbury Handbook of Plato: (Bloomsbury Handbooks)

This essential reference text on the life, thought and writings of Plato uses over 160 short, accessible articles to cover a complete range of topics for both the first-time student and seasoned scholar of Plato and ancient philosophy. It is organized into five parts illuminating Plato’s life, the whole of the Dialogues attributed to him, the Dialogues’ literary features, the concepts and themes explored within them and Plato’s reception via his influence on subsequent philosophers and the various interpretations of his work. This fully updated 2nd edition includes 19 newly commissioned entries on topics ranging across comedy, tragedy, Xenophon, metatheatre, gender, musical theory, animals, Orphism, political theory, religion, time, Hellenistic philosophy and post-Platonic ancient commentaries. It also features revisions to the majority of articles from the 1st edition, including 8 which have been completely re-written, and 12 which have had the references substantially revised. Reflecting the growing diversity of Plato scholarship across the world, this edition includes contributions from a wide range of scholars who enrich the field and provide students and scholars with a vital resource for study and reference.

Table of Contents:
List of Contributors Acknowledgements List of Dialogue Abbreviations How to Use This Book Introduction 1. PLATO’S LIFE, HISTORICAL, LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHIC CONTEXT Plato’s life Aristophanes and intellectuals Comedy Education Eleatics Isocrates and logography Orality and literacy Poetry (epic and lyric) Pre-socratic philosophers Pythagoreans Rhetoric and speechmaking Socrates (historical) Socratics (other than Plato) The Sophists Xenophon 2. THE DIALOGUES The Platonic corpus and manuscript tradition Alcibiades 1 The Apology of Socrates Charmides Clitophon Cratylus Crito Dubia and Spuria (Alcibiades 2, Hipparchus, Minos, Rival Lovers, Axiochus, Definitions, On Justice, On Virtue, Demodocus, Eryxias, Sisyphus) Epinomis Euthydemus Euthyphro Gorgias Hippias Major Hippias Minor Ion Laches Laws Letters Lysis Menexenus Meno Parmenides Phaedo Phaedrus Philebus Politicus (Statesman) Protagoras Republic Sophist Symposium Theaetetus Theages Timaeus and Critias 3. IMPORTANT FEATURES OF THE DIALOGUES Anonymity Characters Comedy Drama History Emotions (pathe, pathemata) Humour Irony Language Literary composition Musical structure Myth (muthos) Pedagogical structure Pedimental structure Play (paidia) Proleptic composition Reading order Socrates (the character) Tragedy 4. CONCEPTS, THEMES AND TOPICS TREATED IN THE DIALOGUES Account (see Logos) Aesthetics Akrasia (incontinence, weakness of will) Animals Antilogy and eristic Aporia Appearance and reality Argument (see Logos) Art (techne) Beauty (kalon) Being and becoming (on, onta; gignesthai) Cause (aitia) Cave, the allegory of the Character City (polis) Convention (see Law) Cosmos (kosmos) Cross-examination (see Elenchus) Daimon Death Definition (see Logos) Desire (appetite, epithumia) Dialectic (dialektike) The divided line Education Elenchus (cross-examination, refutation) Epistemology (knowledge) Eristic (see Antilogy and Eristics) Eros (see Love) Eschatology Ethics Eudaimonia (see Happiness) Excellence (virtue, arete?) Forms (eidos, idea) Friendship (philia) Gender Goodness (the good, Agathon) Happiness (eudaimonia) Hermeneutics Idea (see forms) Image (eikon) Imitation (see Mimesis) Incontinence (see Akrasia) Inspiration Intellectualism Justice (dikaion, dikaiosune) Knowledge (see Epistemology) Language Law, convention (nomos) Logic Logos (account, argument, definition) Love (eros) Madness and possession Mathematics (mathematike) Medicine (iatrike) Metaphysics (see Ontology) Metatheatre Method Mimesis (imitation) Music Mysteries Myth (muthos) Nature (phusis) Nomos (see Law) Non-propositional knowledge The one (to hen) Ontology (metaphysics) Orphism Paiderastia (pederasty) Participation Perception and sensation (aisthesis, aisthanomai) Philosophy and the philosopher Phusis (see Nature) Piety (eusebeia, hosios) Pleasure (hedone) Poetry (poiesis) Politics and the (figure of the) Politicus Reality (see Appearance and reality) Reason Recollection (anamnesis) Refutation (see Elenchus) Rhetoric (rhetorike) Self-knowledge Sensation (see Perception and sensation) The Sophists Soul (psyche) The sun simile Theology Time Virtue (see Excellence) Vision Weakness of will (see Akrasia) Women Writing 5. LATER RECEPTION, INTERPRETATION AND INFLUENCE OF PLATO AND THE DIALOGUES Section A: Plato in the Ancient World Ancient hermeneutics Aristotle Academy of Athens, ancient history of Jewish Platonism (ancient) Neoplatonism and its diaspora Section B: Plato in the Middle Ages and Renaissance Medieval Islamic Platonism Medieval Jewish Platonism Medieval Christian Platonism Renaissance Platonism The Cambridge Platonists Section C: Plato in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy Early modern philosophy from Descartes to Berkeley Nineteenth-century German idealism Nineteenth-century Plato scholarship Developmentalism Compositional chronology Analytic approaches to Plato Vlastosian approaches Continental approaches Straussian readings of Plato Plato’s unwritten doctrines Esotericism The Tübingen approach Anti-Platonism, from ancient to modern References Index

About the Author :
Gerald A. Press was Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center, USA. Mateo Duque is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Binghamton University, USA.

Review :
This well conceived and thoughtfully organized collection brings together scores of lucid and authoritative essays by many of the leading Plato scholars in the world. In this revised and updated second edition, it remains a reliable and congenial guide to the perplexities of Plato’s philosophy. This second edition of The Bloomsbury Handbook of Plato is most welcome. Some entries have been rewritten or updated, and some new well-informed entries added to offer a coherent introduction to even more aspects of Plato and his philosophy. This collection will be most helpful for beginners, but also will serve senior scholars. It is a treasure for anyone who is interested in the field of ancient philosophy. This handbook concisely introduces critical interpretations from antiquity to the present day, provides the background that sets the dialogues in context, and above all, reveals the depth and breadth of Plato’s philosophical legacy. The highly readable entries are expertly informed and refreshingly non-dogmatic, and the companion summarizes the dialogues, letters and spuria to leave the reader in a better position to interpret Plato. Highly recommended for Plato readers both novice and experienced. (for the 1st edition) The editor has assembled a remarkably wide range of contributors, able to cover - as successfully as any team could, within the space of a single volume - the outlines of the complex and fissiparous world of Plato, Platonism, and Platonic interpretation up to the present day. The book represents a unique resource for advanced students and professional scholars alike. (for the 1st edition)Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through graduate students; general readers. (for the 1st edition) Gerald Press and his associate editors, Harald Tarrant, Deborah Nails and Francesco Gonzalez, have given us a companion to turn (and return) to for succinct guidance about topics in Plato's philosophy, the intellectual context in which he wrote, and the many different historical and contemporary interpretations of his work . . . Both in overall conception and its individual entries this companion is much to be welcomed . . . The high standard of the contributions and the rich array of entries make this companion an excellent resource for courses on Plato or individual dialogues, while it also has much to offer to anyone who wants a concise and up-to-date introduction to aspects of Plato, his work, or his philosophy.