Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo (Cliffs Notes)

Rating:
Summary: Understanding Plato's Selected Dialogs of Socrates
Review: Not all of the little yellow books with the black stripes deal with literature in the fictional sense, as Charles H. Patterson's Cliffs Notes for Plato's "Euthyphro," "Apology," "Crito" and "Phaedo." "Euthyphro" concerns the meaning of piety, the "Apology" consists of Socrates' speeches in the trial that condemned him to death, "Crito" takes place in prison as Socrates explains why he refused to escape and save his life, and "Phaedo" relates the last hours of Socrates. The introduction covers the lives of both Socrates and Plato, in an effort to help teachers/readers understand the difference between the two. Then each of the four dialogues are covered in turn in the traditional Summary/Commentary manner, although each half is presented as a whole. Of course the dialogues do not have distinct sections, apartment from the "Apology," which consists of three speeches by Socrates before the court. This means that both the summaries and commentaries are large sections that consequently fail to give a sense of structure to the dialogues. This makes them somewhat imposing, although decidedly less so that the actual dialogues. However, the analysis does take into account the argumentative particulars of each dialogue so that readers get a clear sense of how Socrates/Plato advances his case in each one.

Rating:
Summary: Understanding Plato's Selected Dialogs of Socrates
Review: Not all of the little yellow books with the black stripes deal with literature in the fictional sense, as Charles H. Patterson's Cliffs Notes for Plato's "Euthyphro," "Apology," "Crito" and "Phaedo." "Euthyphro" concerns the meaning of piety, the "Apology" consists of Socrates' speeches in the trial that condemned him to death, "Crito" takes place in prison as Socrates explains why he refused to escape and save his life, and "Phaedo" relates the last hours of Socrates. The introduction covers the lives of both Socrates and Plato, in an effort to help teachers/readers understand the difference between the two. Then each of the four dialogues are covered in turn in the traditional Summary/Commentary manner, although each half is presented as a whole. Of course the dialogues do not have distinct sections, apartment from the "Apology," which consists of three speeches by Socrates before the court. This means that both the summaries and commentaries are large sections that consequently fail to give a sense of structure to the dialogues. This makes them somewhat imposing, although decidedly less so that the actual dialogues. However, the analysis does take into account the argumentative particulars of each dialogue so that readers get a clear sense of how Socrates/Plato advances his case in each one.