Reviews

ok I haven't actually read the whole thing, but I read as much as I could take in one semester which if you figure it by page numbers is something like 78.4% of Plato's complete works. I really liked the Phaedrus, the Theatetus, and the Symposium, as well as all the early books on Socrates, but by the end of the Republic I was begging for Aristotle.

daddyswish's review

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4.0

Ok I only read 80% of this but....come on I had to skip some

marystevens's review

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5.0

Meno, Euthyphro, Timaeus, Republic, Apology

eunoianowhere's review

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4.0

Ok I only read 80% of this but....come on I had to skip some

kisdead's review

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challenging funny informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

It's Plato. People already know why it's important. The only dialogues really worth skipping are the more dubious ones that are probably not attributed to Plato himself, but even these are relatively short and some are fascinating nonetheless (Rival Lovers, Alcibiades). The exception is Laws which is like watching paint dry--if anyone's reading this, I will give you a gift from God and tell you which parts to focus on so you don't need to read the whole thing: Book IV is an interesting take on moral psychology, Book V discusses the nature of punishment and sets the debate for retributive vs rehabilitative punishment, and Book X is a classic in natural theology and Plato's theory of cosmology. The rest of Laws is only necessary if you're a Plato scholar and if you have to read it, I'm sorry, because it's baffling that the same man who wrote something as riveting and brilliant as The Republic, Symposium, and Phaedrus would cap it all off with Laws. A final note: this Complete Works edition, while being great for having every dialogue in a convenient place, does not provide a great linear path for first time students of Plato. The reading order is a bit complicated, and places the later, really (like really) hard dialogues toward the beginning. I'd put Sophist, Statesmen, Parmenides, and Philebus last on the reading order. Everything else can be read in different orders, but make sure Republic is relatively early, and the "death of Socrates" narrative also relatively early (I'd order it Euthyphro, Meno, Apology, Crito, Phaedo). Timaeus should also be toward the end.

Here are my favorites and the ones I consider essential:

Apology
Phaedo
Parmenides
Symposium
Phaedrus
Protagoras
Gorgias
Republic
Meno
Euthyphro
Timaeus
Philebus
Sophist
Theaetetus

nicole_dust's review

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Partially read for school.

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