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Plato and his dialoguesby Bernard SUZANNE |
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| "The safest general characterization
of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato" A. N. Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1929 "Si quelqu'un réduisait Platon en système, il rendrait un grand service au genre humain" G. W. Leibniz, Letter to Nicolas Rémond dated February 11th, 1715 |
Plato is probably one of the greatest philosophers of all times, if not the greatest. Yet, he was one of the first philosophers, at least in the western philosophical tradition that was born in Greece a few hundred years BC., and anyway he is the first one whose complete works are still available to us. But if we have more than we would bargain for in terms of writings attributed to Plato, as some of the dialogues and letters transmitted to us under his name are obviously not his, we have very little data on his life and literary activity. As a result, many conflicting theories have been developed by scholars of various times regarding the interpretation of Plato's dialogues and their chronology to the extent that it bears on their interpretation. This set of pages intends to present a new theory on the interpretation of Plato's dialogues and "philosophy" suggesting that the twenty-eight genuine dialogues make up a single work composed of seven tetralogies, each including an introductory dialogue and a trilogy (see the structure of this work in the page of this site titled "Plato's Tetralogies") which, as a whole, form an educational guide for the students of the Academy, the school founded by Platon in Athens to form future rulers, the "philosopher-kings" called for by him at Republic, V, 473c11-e2, at the center of the central dialogue of the whole set. And one of the main objectives of this program is to answer, not the question "What is/exists and what is not/does not exist?", a question which for him has no meaning because for him the verb "to be" (einai in Greek) is only a linguistic tool used to associate a subject to one or more attributes, that is to say, to propose what is nowadays called an "ontology" as the basis of his reflections, as all his predecessors tried to do and as the most gifted of his student, Aristotle, continued to do, but to the question "How logos (a Greek word which may be translated as both "word" or "language" and "reason", that is to say, which designates speech as potentially bearing meaning), which specifies us as human beings by distinguishing us from all other animals, can give us access to more than the words that compose it as mere audible or visible physical phenomena and render the world around us (and not God knows what "world of forms/ideas") intelligible?", that is to say, to propose what might be called, by analogy with "ontology", a "logology", a discourse, not on "being", but on logos, its power through dialogue and its limits, whose mastery is what he calls "dialectic" (dialektikè), a word derived from the verb dialegesthai, meaning "to dialogue" (a synthetic version of these theses, dating back from 2016, can be found in the pdf file titled "Plato (the philosopher): User's Guide").
Based on these assumptions, the "evolution" which can be perceived from dialogue to dialogue read in the order I suggest is not that of their author as he was writing them (as suggested by the holders of what I call the "evolutionist" hypothesis, that is, all recent scholars), but reflects the adaptation of the author working along pedagogical principles to the level expected from the student / reader at the point in the whole educational program at which the dialogue is located, all the dialogues having been written by an author holding the same beliefs from beginning to end while writing this unique work, probably composed in whole during the last years of his life, who didn't hesitate to saw all through these dialogues, especially toward the end of the program, implicit "tests" of understanding for his students / readers (obviously without explicitely saying that they are "tests" or giving understanding keys or answers at the end of the work), who have the holders of the "evolutionist" hypothesis tear their hair, as they assume that the dialogue are supposed to reflect the stage of intellectual evolution of their author at the time he wrote each one of them, supposed to spread over about fifty years between the death of Socrates and his own. Examples of these "test questions" to which the reader is expected to give an answer, are: Why did Plato write the Menexenus, a dialogue in which he seems to play the game of rhetors of the time such as Lysias, Gorgias or else Isocrate, whom he keeps criticizing all over the other dialogues, especially in the Gorgias? What is the meaning of the Parmenides, which seems to doubt some of the supposed "theories" of Plato in his so-called (by the holders of the "evolutionist" hypothesis) "middle dialogues", and primarily his assumed "Theory of Forms /Ideas" as they understand it (erroneously)? How to explain that the portrait of "philosopher" drawn by the Socrates staged by Plato in the Theaetetus in a digression at the center of the dialogue does all it can to disqualify the Socrates staged in the other dialogues from this qualification, even though he is for Plato, if these dialogues are to be trusted, especially the last words of the Phaedo (Phaedo, 118a15-17), the best example of what he means by "philosopher"? Why did Plato replace Socrates by an Elean Stranger to lead the discussion in the Sophist and Statesman? Why did he never write the dialogue anticipated in the Sophist and Statesman, which should have been called the Philosopher and would have staged a dialogue between Socrates and his young namesake answering the Elean Stranger in the Statesman? Why the Critias is unfinished and why is it interrupted precisely where it ends in its unfinished state? Why Plato never wrote the sequel of the Timaeus and Critias, which should have been named Hermocrates?...
But
these pages don't intend to make you a Plato scholar, a specialist of his thoughts
and "theories", for the simple reason that one of the most ingrained
convictions of the author of these pages is that, if Plato wrote dialogues
rather than philosophy treatises, and, what's more, dialogues in which he never
stages himself as a participant, it is because his purpose was not to tell his
readers what he himself thought, what were the answers he himself
had given to the most fundamental questions in life about what it means to
be a human being, but to teach them to think by themselves so that they
could find their own answers to those questions, because he knew that,
in such matters, neither he nor we would ever get ultimate, "scientifically"
demonstrable, answers, and that each one of us has to build one's own life
and live it (and that, no one can do for someone else) based upon
hypotheses that had to be the most "reasonable" that
was possible, as what defines man (as a species) is his being an animal endowed with logos
(a Greek word meaning both "speech" and "reason", among
many other meanings), but that would nonetheless remain till the end "indemonstrable"
assumptions. In short, he only wanted to help his readers practice for themselves
the motto that was engraved above the main entrance of the temple at Delphi,
and which his "master", Socrates, had made his own:
| "Know thyself " |
(in Greek : "gnôthi sauton", which is better translated by "come to know thyself" or "learn to know thyself") and thus, to become philosophers, that is, according to Plato at least, not specialists of one scholarly branch of knowledge among others, making a living out of their teaching, peer debates and published works, but, in the etymological sense of the word, "lovers of wisdom", lovers (philoi in Greek) only, not "wise" (sophoi in Greek), because they know the wisdom they love cannot be reached in this life (as the principles upon which it depends cannot be demonstrated, which means, as Socrates used to say, that "I know nothing", meaning "I known nothing for certain, in the strongest sense of these words, nothing, that is, of what alone counts to reach happiness in life"), but constitutes an idea(l) of justice, of a justice that is not merely abiding by the laws, but which is the inner harmony to be reached by a human being whose will is torn apart between passions and reason and whose unity is not given from the start, as the foundation for social harmony between men and women in the city.
And if, for Plato, human beings are caraterized by their being endowed with logos, this implies that they are in the first place "social" (politikos) animals made to live in communities, because logos could only appear and develop through and for dialogue in stable communities of life lasting long enough to make the appearance of a vocabulary and grammar developing over multiple generations possible. The prime goal of this logos is to make it possible for human beings to organize, through dialogos ("dialogue"), as best they can their social life in order to make it possible for the greatest number of them to be as happy as possible despite (and also thanks to) their "biological" differences at birth while taking into account the constraints implied by life in society. In order to achieve this goal, th most important piece of knowledge, which cannot be acquired by all to the same extent, is precisely mastery of (dia)logos ,what he calls dialektikè, which is for him the art of using logos to reach truth regarding the world around us, understand it (that is, to make it "intelligible" to us, and not only "sensible", that is, limited to what we perceive by the senses only), and especially understand the relations between its consituents (including us, human beings) and the laws which regulate them, to take them into account and use them as a model to organize the framework of our life of "social" animals bound to live in communities called polis ("city / state") and thus politikoi ("political") and endowed with logos (logikoi) "through laws" which it is the task of those who have the skills required fot this task to devise and maintain in the light of experience for the greatest good of all.
The goal of this whole set of dialogues, from first (Alcibiades) to last (Laws) on either side of the keystone of which the Republic plays the part, is thus political : it intends to answer the question asked in the first dialogue, the Alcibiades : what makes a human being fit for ruling other human beings and what skills must he acquire to play that role, with, as can be guessed, the implied question in the background: what is the best political organization to put in place for that purpose? And all through the dialogues leading to the presentation, in the Laws, the last one, of an example, situated in time and space (Greece of the IVth century BC), and thus not fit as is for other places and times, but still usefull for the spirit in which it deals with these questions, Plato attempts to show that it is impossible to answer those questions without first answering a great many other questions with answers consistent with one another: what does it mean to be an anthrôpos ("human being")? What constitutes the excellence (aretè) of such a being? What is good (not only from a moral standpoint) for them, in all their dimensions, physical / material (body) as well as spiritual / intellectual ("soul")? How does the logos which distinguishes them from other animals work? How and within which limits can it give them access to more than the words which make it up as mere sounds? Which specific role(s) do(es) the verb einai ("to be") play in it? What can they known of the world around them? What does their temporal finitude and unaviodable death imply in this respect? Is there a part of them which doesn't end at death? What are the impacts of the biological difference between men and women on the ideal organization of the city / state? How to organize as best we can, both for their own good and for the good of the city / state, the education of the citizens from birth till death?...
And on all these questions, Plato is always in a perspective of inclusion and complementarity (body and mind, reason and passions, sensible and intelligible, being and becoming, man and woman...) seeking to take into account the whole of man and the Universe and to determine the proper place of each of these elements, and not in a perspective of opposition and exclusion (the mind at the expense of the body, reason freed from passions, the intelligible to the detriment of the sensible, men to the exclusion of women to govern...) denying the "reality" of some of them, everything that is not material, visible and tangible for some (the "sons of the earth" of the Sophist), everything that is so for others (the "friends of eidè" of the Sophist). This is shown by the famous allegory of the cave itself, which does not oppose, as is generally believed, two distinct "worlds", the material and sensible world, that of the "visible" (horaton), represented by the interior of the cave, which it is fitting to exit, and the "world" of "forms (eidè) / ideas (ideai)", the "intelligible" (noèton) represented by the exterior of the cave, where it is fitting to stay once there, but describes two complementary ways of apprehending a single "world", our own, an apprehension through sight of the "visible" (horaton), but also by hearing, essential to make logos possible, which opens access to the intellgible, and more generally by the senses, inside the cave, and an apprehension by the mind/intelligence (noûs) of the "intelligible" (noèton), which gives access to the intelligibility of this unique Kosmos (the Universe as manifesting a certain "order" (kosmos in Greek) implying "laws") outside the cave, which it is fitting to explore only, when one has the ability to do so, to return to the cave, which one never completely leaves so long as one remains in a material body. And in fact, the allegory properly understood shows us that everything that is "visible" inside the cave is found as "intelligible" outside, where can also be found the purely intelligible "ideas" (ideai) which constitute their principles of intelligibility, the bridge between the two being provided by eidè ("kinds, genera, species, forms... ") that each person posits for oneself to give meaning to the words one uses and adjusts throughout one's life as one's understanding increases, and which have as their distant targets the ideai, "objective" principles of intelligibility, represented in the allegory by the stars in heaven. This distinction between eidè, principles of naming, which each person posits for oneself and adjusts over time to give meaning to the words one uses, and ideai, the "objective" principles of intelligibility which are not the creation of any human being, but are imposed on all, is highlighted in the last book of the Republic, in the discussion on the different kinds (eidè) of beds: the painted image of a bed, the bed made by craftsmen, the only one on which one can sleep, the unique idea of bed, which makes us understand what a bed is regardless of the name given it (klinè, bed, lit, bett, letto, cama, sack, plumard...) and the way in which it is materially built, without forgetting the word "bed", which Plato expects us to add to his list between the manufactured beds and the idea of bed, in order to retrieve the four segments that he describes in the analogy of the line that preludes the allegory of the cave in the Republic, and which represent the four modes of apprehension of the real, two in the visible/interior of the cave and two in the intelligible/exterior of the cave, the difference in each case (visible and intelligible) resulting from the fact that the person who apprehends the world (in its visible or intelligible dimension) is not or is conscious of the fact that one apprehends it only through "images", the images provided by sight in the visible, the words in the intelligible, which are never what one only apprehends "images/representations" of, that is, the "beings" (onta) themselves (auta) (two images, the analogy of the line and the allegory of the cave, that must be read together insofar as they complement each other).
As a prelude or accompaniment to the reading of Plato's dialogues, a page of this site titled « Platon par lui-même » (in French only) includes my annotated translation of two sections of Plato's so-called VIIth Letter, probably the only genuine letter among the thirteen ascribed to him and still published nowadays under his name, which are both enlightening: the first one is at the beginning of the letter and may be considered a short autobiography till his first trip to Sicily; the second one includes what is often called the philosophical digression (surrounded by its immediate context which explains its motivation), which constitutes a partial summary from his own hand, intended for non-specialists, of Platon's epistemology, which may accordingly shed some light on the dialogues and help understand them.
2. Plato and SocratesA page of this site titled "Plato's Socrateses" presents what I think is the relationship between the Socrates (or Socrateses) Plato stages in most of his dialogues and the historical Socrates as it may be understood in the context of the organization in tetralogies I pretend Plato had in mind when writing his dialogues and of the pedagogical and philosophical objectives he set for them, suggesting that what Plato mostly retained from Socrates is a pedagogical method based on dialogue by questions and answers purporting to apply to ethical problems which were the main concern of the historical Socrates the "rational" approach of the geometers and mathematicians, even though he knew that, in this domain, absolute certainty is not possible, which explains why he chose him as the guide for his students / readers in dialogues all imagined by him to answer his pedagogical and philosophical objectives and not to record more or less faithfully events of the life and words of the historical Socrates, even though some of these dialogues may take place in a specific historical framwork, such as his tral and death.
In the Phaedo, the dialogue following the Republic in the central trilogy on the soul and dealing with its destiny, Plato has Socrates recounting what can be seen as his intellectual "autobiography"("autobiography" beween quotes, since it is Plato who wrote it; my annotated translation available in French only), in which he tells how he discovered the leading role of logos, which distinguishes us, human beings, from all other animals, in our apprehension and understanding of the world around us, and of the importance of understanding how it works and how it can, by means of words which are but sounds or graphical signs with nothing in common with what the purport to designate, give us access to somethong which is not them, which implies that we become conscious of the fact that, as is the case with sight in its own way, it only gives us access to "images" of the world, but "intelligible" images allowing us to understand it and not only to see it. It is when he became conscious of this ("It then appeared to me that it was necessary, having recourse to logoi, to investigate in them the truth of beings", Phaedo, 99e4-6) that he undertook what he calls his "second sailing" (deuteron ploun, Phaedo, 99d1). It is impossible to properly understand Plato without understanding that what Socrates is talking about with the word logoi is indeed logoi, in the most usual sense of the word, but jumping ahead, as most, if not all, translators and scholars do, embarrassed by this word which is not the one they expect (see note 52 to my translation in French of this section of the Phaedo) and desperately trying to find in it a reference to Forms / Ideas (eidè / ideai), which come only at a later time to explain the ways through which words may refer to something other than themselves.
A bit of history (of the site): when I created this site in 1996 (in English, as at the time it was hosted by an American University, see Acknowledgement at the end of this page) I had in mind to offer commentaries of all the dialogues in this new perspective and, besides, to provide information on the historical and geographical context of these dialogues, and the layout of the site was designed accordingly, based on the organization in tetralogies of the dialogues. When I added the French part of the site toward the end of 1997, it was supposed to be a miror version in French of the English version. But when, at the end of 2001, I moved the site to France and cut all links with the American University which had hosted it at the beginning, I focused primarily on the French section, prioritizing abundantly annotated translations of key sections of Plato's dialogues, which led me to discover a Plato which is not the Plato of the scholars, far from it! It is indeed almost impossible to properly understand Plato without reverting to the original Greek text since available translations reflect more of the understanding (and often misunderstanding) of their author than of Plato's thought. And these discoveries didn't come all at once, difficult as it is to free oneself from the (false) common preconceptions which crowd Plato's commentaries and pollute the available translations of his dialogues, starting with his supposes "theory of forms / ideas", which is for most of them his "trademark". As a result, the formalization of the ideas I present on this site upon and above the tetralogical structure of the dialogues, which, as far as it is concerned, stayed mostly the same from the start, developed progressively over time and I didn't update all the already existing pages of the site to make them consistent with new ideas stemming from the development of new pages. And in August of 2024, as I write these words almost thirty years after the creation of the site, at the age of eighty, I realize that I will never be able to complete the site as initially envisioned, not even to rework all existing pages to make them consistent with one another and with my latest understanding of Plato, or the one that mightr result from further discoveries I might make in my continued work of studying and translating sections of dialogues. Anyway, all the pages of this site have a date of latest update on the right at the top, and in the middle at bottom and whenever inconstistencies or contradictions between pages appear, what is said in the more recent pages must be prefered to what is said in earlier ones.
In its current state (November 2025) the French part of the site mainly displays five sets of anotated translations of dialogues or parts of dialogues:
- the oldest is a complete translation (in French) with introduction and notes of the Meno (in html format and in pdf book format, the later with Greek text on split pages), the introductory dialogue fo the third tetralogy (Meno - Euthyphro / Apology of Socrates / Crito), focusing on Socrates' trial, dating back from 2000-2002. This dialogues, which starts with the question about how human being may reach perfection (aretè, not limited to moral perfection), and whether it is acquired through teaching, or through experience, or it is a gift from nature, ends on the question of the difference between true opinion and knowledge, a fondamental question for someone who, like plato's Socrates, thinks that sense data lead only to opinions and that knowledge, if it is accessible to human beings, can only be reached in the intelligible realm, whose boundaries and means of access must thus be investigatrd, a task undertaken in later dialogues.
- the most decisive is made up of translations (mostly in French, some in English too) with notes and comments of sections of the Republic, the biggest part of that being the complete translation, speading over several html pages, of books V to VII and the beginning of book VIII, which constitute the "heart"of the Republic, itself center and keystone of the program developed all through the dialoques (a page titled Les trois vagues serves as an introduction to the reading of books V to VII; the pages available in English, for the time being, with the traduction alone, without introdutions and notes, which will come later, are: the parallel between the good and the sun (Republic VI, 504e7-509c4), the analogy of the line (Republic, VI, 509c5-511e5), the allegory of the cave (Republic VII, 514a1-517a7) and Socrates comments on it (Republic, VII, 517a8-519d7), and the definition of dialektikè (Republic, VII, 531c9-535a2), ). Other sections of the Republic also translated (mostly French, some also in English) include the beginning of the dialogue (staging and discussion between Socrates and Cephalus), the story of the ring of Gyges (this one available in English too) told by Glaucon in his preliminary speech in book II, a translation (in French) of the end of book IV, dealing with justice in the city, the tripartition of the soul and justice in the human soul, the discussion on the various kinds of beds (available with introduction and notes in English too) toward the beginning of book X (a text which is key to understand what Plato means respectively by eidos and idea, and the difference he makes between both), and last, the end of book X (hence of the Republic), the myth of Er from Pamphylia. A page titled Aux âmes, citoyens ! presents the staging principles of the Republic (which stages two tripartite "souls" (along the lines of the tripartition described in the dialogue) whose parts are "played" by Socrates and his various interlocutors) and other pages (available in English too) present the plans of the Republic and the distribution of parts between the various interlocutors of Socrates, who change as the dialogue proceeds (first Cephalus, then Polemarchus, then Thrasymachus in book I, then alternatively Adeimantus and Glaucon, the brothers of Plato). The most important parts of these three books (books V to VII) are, at the articulation between books VI and VII, the analogy of the line and the allegory of the cave, which complement one another and must be read together, introduced by the parallel between good and sun, but also the section at the end of book V which I have translated (in French only) under the title Savoir et opinion : idées et idées reçues, which follows the statement of the principle of philosopher-kings and preludes to the long section made up of books VI and VII, which presents what Plato means by "philosopher" (philosophos) and how he suggests to educate such persons, and the definition of dialektikè at the end of book VII, which presents what Plato calls dialektikè (which is not what we are used to associate with the word "dialectic(s)", the transcription in English of the Greek word, especially after Hegel and Marx) and which he considers to be the crowning of this education. The page titled Savoir et opinion : idées et idées reçues starts with a long introduction, which is indeed an introduction to this page plus all that follows till the end of book VII, what Socrates calls "the third wave", and the translation of the analogy of the line starts with an introduction to the whole it makes along with the allegory of the cave showing how both images complement each other and each sheds light on the other.
Note: the translation of those pages of the Republic spread over many years since my first translation of the allegory of the cave in April 1999, and these, and other translations made in parallel, led me to a better undrestanding of what Plato tries to make us understand through them. In order to be able to make progresses, I have not always taken time to upgrade already translated sections as my understanding of Plato was evolving, but I did it at least for the most important pages , those listed above (Savoir et opinion, parallel between good and sun, analogy of the line, allegory of the cave and its commentary by Socrates, definition of dialektikè) plus the page on the various kinds of beds, which had existed in various versions over time until the latest version of each one, uploaded on the site between November 2022 and May 2024, bringing consistency between them in the light of my most recent understanding of what Plato tries to make us understand. For those interested, all the successive versoins of those pages are available on the site through links at the beginning of the most recent version of each page.
Note to English only readers: a commented translation by me of the parallel between good and sun, the analogy of the line, the allegory of the cave and Socrates' comments on it, and the definition of dialektikè is available in the pdf file titled "Plato (the philosopher): User's Guide", and now (February 2026) in web pages format by clicking on the names in the above list, for the time being without introductions and notes, which are in the process of being translated into English. But readers of this book must be warned that it was written in 2016 and that my understanding of Plato has made progress since then, which means that there are parts of it I wouldn't write as I did then. One key problem with this book is that, when I wrote it, I was only halfway in my new understanding of the difference between eidos and idea, as suggested in the discussion on the various kinds of beds (whose annotated trannslation into English is now available on this site) properly understood: I had not yet realized that eidè are devised by each one to give meaning to the words they use, evolve along with the person's progress in understanding these words and are thus different to a certain extent from one person to another and, from the same person, from one moment of one's life to another, while ideai are objective principles of understanding, the same for all and the far away target of each one's eidè.
- A thrid set includes three html pages providing (in French only) an anotated translation of the first part of the Parmenides, one of the most arduous and hard to properly understand dialogues of Plato, which serves as an introduction to the sixth tetralogy (Parmenides - Theaetetus / Sophist / Statesman), the one about dialektikè, and attempts to make us understand through examples without explicitely saying so why dialektikè as understood by Plato, rather than logic as Aristotle thought, is the crowning of the educational program of education of candidates philosophers. The page including the translation of the first part of the dialogue between a very young Socrates and a quite old Parmenides starts with an introduction which explains the role of this dialogue and the meaning it must be given, and which helps understand why I didn't feel the need to translate the rest of the dialogue, the "tedious game" (as Parmenides himself calls it) between Parmenides and a teenager named Aristotle (a historic character who ended one of the Thirty Tyrants), whose homonymy with the philosopher of the same name, student, then colleague of Plato at the Academy, owes nothing to chance. A page titled L'argument du troisième homme (in French only), in reference to the name given to one of the arguments Parmenides opposes to Socrates regarding eidè / ideai (between which neither the Parmenides staged by Plato nor his teenager Socrates who answers him in the first part of the dialogue make any difference), shows that the fact that Parmenides uses this argument in a faulty way undetected by the teenager named Socrates facing him while the mature Socrates of the Republic, a dialogue which precedes the Parmenides in the order of the tetralogies, uses it rightly in the discussion on the various kinds of beds in the Republic to demonstrate the unicity of the idea (which is not the same thing for him as eidè) ruins the "evolutionist" hypothesis and is a prime argument in favor of my hypothesis about the dialogues being a single work with a pedagogical purpose scattered with "test-questions".
- a fourth set, crowning of this work, includes a series of pages offering a widely anotated translation of the second part of the Sophist (in French only), the part dealing with the seventh characterisation of the sophist, which alone makes up one half of the dialogue and considers the sophist as producer, trying to characterize his productions, but which is mainly the occasion of a long parenthesis on the possibility of false speech in which the Elean Stranger, who has taken over from Socrates the leading role in the dialogue, commits a "parricide" in thought on one of his fellow-citizens, Parmenides, counterpart in the intelligible realm of the killing in acts, in the visible realm, of Socrates by a plurality of his fellow-Athenians, a parenthesis which is in fact the main goal of this dialogue, which focuses, through the game of "definitions" of the sophist, on the way logos works, since its improper use is the main feature of the sophist, and on the manner in which he may acquire meaning and of the meaning of the verb einai ("to be") and of the expression mè einai (« not be ») / mè on (« not being »), translation accompanied by an introduction and various pages of comments and a plan of the dialogue accessible from the introductory page, and also a parallel between the Theatetus and the Sophist, showing that the first one is a failure staging a Socrates who is not that of the Republic and the other dialogues from whom Plato distances himself by suggesting that its author is is somebody else (Euclid of Megara), while the second is a success which constitutes the culminating point of the educational program running through all the dialogues, even though Socrates' leading role in earlier dialogues is taken over by an anonymous citizen from Elea (the birthplace of Parmenides), leaving it to the reader to understand that he is closer to the Socrates of the Republic than the Socrates of the Theaetetus.
- a last set includes the translation (in French only) in two html pages of the last attempt by Socrates in the Phaedo, as inconclusive as the previous ones, to give credibility to the immortality of the soul, a page of introduction to this last argument, titled L'autobiographie intellectuelle du Socrate de Platon (The intellectual Autobiography of Socrates; Phaedo, 95e8-102a3), already mentioned earlier, and a page titled L'argument par les contraires (The argument by the contraries; Phaedo, 102a4-107d5 and 114c6-115a9), which follows the previous one and jumps over the final myth told by Socrates in between the two sections traslated in this page. As far as the historical character of this dialogue, that is, the question whether it relates the last day of Socrates as it really occured (which is not the case), see the page of this site (in English) titled Plato's Socrateses, and especially the paragraph dealing with the Phaedo in the section titled Prologues full of implausibility and inconsistencies.
Latest additions to the site (in English) :
(February 12, 2026) First stage of the translation into English of my annotated translations of key sections of the Republic (parallel between the good and the sun, analogy of the line, allegory of the cave, definition of dialektikè, discussion on the three kinds of beds), witht the translation under the title The three kinds (eidè) of seats (beds) : What a name is the name of ? of Republic,
X, 595c7-598d6, a section that is key to understanding what eidos and idea mean for Platon and what is the difference between both, along with a preliminary version of the pages on the parallel between the good and the sun (Republic VI, 504e7-509c4), the analogy of the line (Republic,
VI, 509c5-511e5), the allegory of the cave (Republic
VII, 514a1-517a7) and Socrates comments on it (Republic,
VII, 517a8-519d7), and the definition of dialektikè (Republic,
VII, 531c9-535a2), includint only the translations, taken from Plato (the philosopher): User's Guide (pdf), the introductions and notes coming later, once translated from the French
(January 31, 2026) Updated version of the Lexicon of Greek words important for understanding Plato based on the latest version of the French version (that of June 13, 2023), which takes into account my new understanding of the section of the Republic at the beginning of book X dealing with tables and beds (Republic X, 595c7-598d6) explaining how we should understand eidos and idea and the difference Plato makes between those two words
(June 27, 2025) Addition of a foreword at the beginning of my paper called Plato: the Essentials summarizing the changes I made to the French original in June, 2023, which I have not yet translated into English, mainly my new understanding of the section of the Republic at the beginning of book X dealing with tables and beds (Republic X, 595c7-598d6) explaining how we should understand eidos and idea and the difference Plato makes between those two words, which deals a fatal blow to Plato's supposed "Theory of Forms/Ideas" as usually understood.
(July 3rd, 2024) A webpage titled "Plato's Socrateses", constituting a second "prelude" accessible from this homepage, dealing with the relationship between the Socrates(es) of the dialogues and the historical Socrates;
(April 26, 2021) A webpage version of the Lexicon of Greek words important for understanding Plato already found in pdf format as appendix 2 of Plato: the Essentials (pdf file, 501 Kb, enriched and revised version of February 28, 2021);
(June 27th, 2017) The translation in English by me of a paper I originally wrote in French (French title: Platon, l'essentiel) titled in English Plato: the Essentials (pdf file, 449 Kb), which provides, in less than twenty pages an overview of the main suggestions Plato submits to our critical examination in the dialogues, followed by a lexicon of Greek words important for understanding Plato, added July 7th, 2017;
(April 21th, 2017) The translation in English by me of a paper I originally wrote in French (French title: Platon, mode d'emploi) titled in English "Plato (the philosopher): User's Guide" (pdf file, about 1,7 Mb), providing a comprehensive overview of my understanding of Plato's dialogues, including a presentation of each dialogue and a translation by me of five key sections of the Republic: the parallel between good and sun (Rep. VI, 504e7-509c4), the analogy of the line (Rep. VI, 509c5-511e5), the allegory of the cave (Rep. VII, 514a1-517a7), its commentary by Socrates (Rep. VII, 517a8-519b7) and the definition of to dialegesthai (Rep. VII, 531c9-535a2) (the paper is about 150 pages plus about 50 pages of appendixes);
(January 24th, 2015) a paper in English titled "Can we see the sun?" (pdf file), detailing my understanding of the allegory of the cave (Republic VII, 514a1-517a7), the analogy of the line (Republic, VI, 509c5-511e5) and the parallel between good and sun (Republic VI, 504e7-509c) and the consequences it has on the general understanding of Plato's dialogues and more specifically on his supposed "theory of forms/ideas";
(March 29th, 2013) in the French section of this site, new completely revised annotated translation in French of Republic, VI, 509c5-511e5 (the analogy of the line) and Republic VII, 514a1-517a7 (the allegory of the cave) (the later available since October 23rd, 2012) leading to a completely new understanding of those two famous texts which deciphers all the details of those images ; (July 25th, 2012) in the French section of this site, annotated translation in French of Republic, X, 595c7-598d6 under the title « les trois couches (lits) », leading to a new understanding of the word eidos and idea in Plato ; (October 16, 2010) in the French section of the site, completion of the annotated translation in French of books V, VI and VII of the Republic, with an introduction, under the title « Les trois vagues »; (June 7, 2009) correction to the map of Plato's dialogues to exchange places between the Gorgias and the Hippias Major (see introductoty note to the presentation of the second tetralogy for some explanations on this change); (June 5, 2009) in the French section of the site, a pdf file (2 Mo) including the Greek text of the Meno along with an introduction and my annotated translation of it in French (each page is divided in three: a portion of the Greek text, my translation in French of that portion, and notes on that portion) ; (earlier) a page with pictures dedicated to the Stephanus edition
of Plato's complete works published in 1578 which still serves as a reference to quote Plato and
a page that shows what
a "book" might
have looked like in Plato's time. Also, for those who read French :
a
"vocabulary" section with studies
of words of significant importance for the understanding of Plato; a commented
translation in French of the
first part of the Parmenides (Parmenides, 126a1-137c3: Prologue,
dialogue between Socrates and Zeno, dialogue between Socrates and Parmenides);
of the Meno;
of large sections of the Republic:
the ring of Gyges; the philosopher
king: end of book
V starting
at 471c4; all of book
VI (including the comparison between
sun and good and the analogy of
the line); all of book
VII (including the allegory of
the cave); the myth of Er at the
end of book X; see also history of updates -- Tools : new
and updated entries on Ionia, Doris,
Æolis, Phocis,
Libya, Phoenicia
and more, and also on Atlas and Atlantis,
Prometheus and Epimetheus, plus a new
map of Athens intra-muros in the time
of Socrates and Plato. Also an entry on Athens
enriched with a more fully developed section on mythological traditions on
its legendarty kings, plus detailed maps of the
Agora
and the Acropolis, and a comparative
chronology of Greek and modern thinkers and politicians to give you a
more
"concrete" feel for the scale of time involved with Plato and Socrates.
(Note : if you are a first time visitor, click here to move directly to the directory of introductory material)
A "map" of Plato's dialogues provinding
links to comments on specific tetralogies and dialogues (the "heart" of this
site)
An overview of the main suggestions Plato submits to our critical examination in the dialogues titled "Plato: the Essentials" (pdf file of about 20 pages(256 Kb), translation in English by me of a paper I originally wrote in French under the title "Platon: l'essentiel") and including as appendix 2 a Lexicon of Greek words important for understanding Plato, also available as a stand-alone web page
A comprehensive overview of my understanding of Plato's dialogues titled "Plato (the philosopher): User's Guide" (pdf file of about 150 pages plus about 50 pages of appendixes (1.7 Mb) including a presentation of each dialogue and a translation by me of five key sections of the Republic: the parallel between good and sun (Rep. VI, 504e7-509c4), the analogy of the line (Rep. VI, 509c5-511e5), the allegory of the cave (Rep. VII, 514a1-517a7), its commentary by Socrates (Rep. VII, 517a8-519b7) and the definition of to dialegesthai (Rep. VII, 531c9-535a2), translation in English by me of a paper I originally wrote in French under the title "Platon, mode d'emploi")
A Tools section providing context and perspective for the dialogues :
synoptic and detailed
chronologies of Vth and IVth centuries
B. C. (in the making) ; maps of Greek
world from Sicily to Asia Minor, Eastern
Mediterranean
from Egypt to the Black Sea, Greece, Central
Greece and Peloponnese, Attica and Athens ;
biographical and geographical entries on
persons and locations of interest in studying
Plato and his dialogues (in the making); and also a
page dedicated to the Stephanus edition of Plato's complete works (with pictures), which, though
dating back to 1578, still serves as the reference today for quoting Plato
(see question 7 of the frequently asked questions)
A Lexicon of Greek words important for undrerstanding Plato (taken from the html file "Plato: the Essentials")
A
list of Plato's works, along
with a bibliography on and around Plato.
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Access
to some of these papers requires Adobe
Reader, which can be downloaded for free from the Adobe site by clicking here.
French reading visitors will also find on the site of the online philosophical journal Klèsis (this journal changes often of host and of layout, which result in frequent changes of URL for individual pages; if the links below to the journal don't work, used the links to the local copies which, being on my site, don't change):
Answers
to some Frequently Asked Questions about Plato
(including a question on Plato and Atlantis)
E-mail
Archives (some of my messages about Plato's dialogues to various lists)
A brief history of the interpretation
of Plato's dialogues
A new set of hypotheses about Plato's dialogues
An introductory essay on Plato and his dialogues
by the author of these pages at the 
(EAWC) site at the University of Evansville, Indiana, which has hosted this
Plato site for the first five years of its existence.
This site on Plato and his dialogues was made possible by the suggestion and encouragement the author received from Anthony F. Beavers, at that time Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Evansville, Indiana, who accepted to host these pages for more than five years (May, 1996 to September, 2001) on one of the servers of the Internet Applications Laboratory (IALab) he founded and headed at the University of Evansville. Among many projects of the IALab, Tony was developing his own site on Plato, called "Exploring Plato's Dialogues : A Virtual Learning Environment on the World-Wide Web".
Plato and his dialogues : Home - Biography - Works and links to them - History of interpretation - New hypotheses - Map of dialogues : table version or non tabular version. Tools : Index of persons and locations - Detailed and synoptic chronologies - Maps of Ancient Greek World. Site information : About the author - Map of the site
First published May 16, 1996 - Last
updated February 15, 2026
© 1996, 1997 Bernard
SUZANNE (click on name to send your comments via e-mail)
Quotations from theses pages are authorized provided they mention the author's
name and source of quotation (including date of last update). Copies of these
pages must not alter the text and must leave this copyright mention visible
in full.
