Review, PLATO: COMPLETE WORKS

The following appeared in Volume 98, Number 1 (Fall, 1998) of the American Philosophical Association's Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy Reviewed by Richard Hogan University of Massachusettes, Dartmouth Plato: Complete Works। Hackett Publishing Co., 1997. $42.50. Translated by John Cooper.

In the case of Plato's writings, Fate has been good to us: we appear to possess all of the works that Plato composed. These were collected, edited, and arranged by the first century A.D. Alexandrian scholar Thrasyllus, who divided them into nine "tetralogies," or groups of four. This gives us 36 works (counting the Letters as one work), although very few scholars accept all these dialogues as genuinely Platonic. Thrasyllus appended eight dialogues that had come down under Plato's name but were generally considered spurious. Plato: Complete Works presents translations of all the material in the collection of Thrasyllus, along with some doubtfully Platonic poetic epigrams.

The publication of this volume marks the completion of a 25-year project by the Hackett Publishing Company. Here, for the first time in this century, readers of English have access, under one cover, to the whole of Plato's oeuvre, in high quality translations by leading scholars, meticulously edited and produced.

The Hackett collection will surely rapidly replace the only other currently available collection with any pretensions to wide coverage, The Collected Dialogues of Plato, edited by Hamilton and Cairns. This volume, many of whose translations are now outdated, does not include a significant number of the dialogues in Thrasyllus' tetralogies and completely omits the spuria.

Many of the translations have been previously published by Hackett, but all have been revised for the present collection. Included in this group are a number that have established themselves as "standards." Grube's Republic, and Levett's Theaetetus are examples. Many translations that appear for the first time and a few older, non-Hackett (but revised) pieces complete the roster of Thrasyllus' nine tetralogies: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo (G. Grube), Cratylus (D. Reeve), Theaetetus (M. Levett, revised by M. Burnyeat), Sophist (N. White), Statesman (C. Rowe), Parmenides (M. Gill and P. Ryan), Philebus (D. Frede), Symposium (A. Nehamas and P. Woodruff), Alcibiades (D. Hutchinson), Second Alcibiades (A. Kenny), Hipparchus (N. Smith), Rival Lovers (J. Mitscherling), Theages (N. Smith), Charmides and Laches (R. Sprague), Lysis (S. Lombardo), Euthydemus (R. Sprague), Protagoras (S. Lombardo and K. Bell), Gorgias (D. Zeyl), Meno (G. Grube), Greater Hippias (P. Woodruff), Lesser Hippias (N. Smith), Ion (P. Woodruff), Menexenus (P. Ryan), Clitophon (F. Gonzalez), Republic (G. Grube, revised by D. Reeve), Timaeus (D. Zeyl), Critias (D. Clay), Minos (M. Schofield), Laws (T. Saunders), Epinomis (R. McKirahan) and Letters (G. Morrow).

One of the most significant achievements of this volume is the inclusion of translations of all the spuria. These are: Definitions (D. Hutchinson), On Justice (A. Becker), On Virtue (M. Reuter), Demodocus (J. Barnes), Sisyphus (D. Gallop) Halcyon (B. Inwood), Eryxias (M. Joyal), Axiochus (J. Hershbell). Associate editor D. S. Hutchinson (University of Toronto) was responsible for overseeing the translations of the spuria and doubtful works, and for writing the introductions to them.

The volume is ably edited by John Cooper, who supplies a general introduction that discusses the Thrasyallan canon, the chronological ordering of Plato's works, the dialogue form, and suggestions on reading Plato. Cooper stresses the fragility of the evidential basis for the division of the dialogues into "early," "middle," and "late," if these categories are taken as strictly chronological. He urges that readers not prejudge questions of chronology before open-mindedly examining the dialogues themselves. Printing the dialogues in Thrasyllus' original order-as opposed to arranging them according to some putative chronology-facilitates this approach. Likewise, says Cooper, the dialogue form suggests that readers should approach the work in a questioning spirit rather than in the expectation of seeing Plato dogmatically set out his philosophy.

Translation is, of course, a highly tricky business. Plato's status as a philosopher as well as a consummate literary artist has provoked all manner of approaches to the project of rendering him into English. Some translators emphasize philosophical accuracy, others the reproduction of the beauty and multifaceted power of Plato's style. Cooper sets out the ideal of translation that he, as editor, has striven to encourage:

"The aim should be to find a way, while adhering to normal English word order and sentence construction, to say as precisely as possible in ordinary English-where necessary, ordinary philosophical English-just what an educated contemporary of Plato's would have taken the Greek being translated to be saying(p. xxiv). "

Readers will, of course, approach Plato with different needs and from differing points of view. And they will not always agree with every decision made by a particular translator. But here they will encounter work that reflects a high degree of success in achieving Cooper's stated aim and a sustained level of accuracy and competence on the part of the team of translators.

Cooper and Hutchinson supply excellent short introductions to each dialogue. (These are surely a welcome improvement over the often quaint remarks in the Hamilton-Cairns volume.) There are helpful footnotes and a 55-page index.

The relatively low price of the volume ($42.50) will put it in reach of most philosophy majors and graduate students, and will allow its use as a text in wide variety of courses in philosophy. It can also be recommended to the general reader as an investment that will furnish a lifetime of pleasure and instruction.

Philosophers, scholars, and teachers should be extremely grateful to the publisher, the editors, and the translators for making this volume possible. I am sure that George Grube, who first started translating Platonic dialogues for Bill Hackett 25 years ago, would be delighted with the results of a project that--unbeknownst to him--began with his efforts.