If you want to know what happened on the site since your last visit,
here is what you are looking for. Following is a list of major updates
with the date they first appeared and a direct link to the corresponding
pages.
- April 26, 2021: A new version of Plato: the Essentials (pdf), including an enriched and revised version of appendix 2, Lexicon of Greek words important for understanding Plato, which is now also available as a stand-alone web page
- 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 21st, 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)
- March 23rd, 2015: Suppression of all links to Amazon.com
- 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 (République,
VI, 504e7-509c) and the consequences it has on the general understanding of Plato's dialogues
- March 8, 2009: 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
- August 22, 2007: Technical update of all links to the Republic and Laws at
Perseus to include the book number in the link, which was not needed in an
earlier version of the site
- December 14, 2001: A bibliography on and around Plato
with links, in that page, in the
page on Plato's works, and elsewhere, toward appropriate pages at Amazon.com
for online purchase of the books listed in those pages
- September
16, 2001: A page that shows what a "book"
might have looked like in Plato's time, along with a commented
translation in French of the analogy of the line form Republic, VI,
added to translations of other
sections of the Republic
- December 24, 2000: A new commented translation
in French of the Meno: for those
who read French, with lots of footnotes and separate comments.
- September 21, 1997: Revised and expanded note
on Socrates' last words in the Overview
of the Phædo : this expanded note explores in greater
details the multiple meanings of Socrates' last words and relates them to
the Alcibiades, Symposium, Apology, and to the definition
of justice provided by Cephalus at the start of the Republic.
- September 7, 1997: Overview and structure of the
Phædo: this set of pages
introduce the Phædo as a dialogue defining the philosopher as
the one who knows he will never be able to prove the soul's immortality
but lives nevertheless the beautiful risk of behaving according to
this belief, and analyses the detailed
structure of the dialogue.
- November 4, 1996: The story of Gyges: this page explores the deeper meaning of
the story of Gyges in book II of the Republic and its relationship
with the allegory of the cave in book VII and the myth of Er at the end of
book X.
- September 29, 1996: Plan of the Phædrus: this set of pages provides a commentary
of the Phædrus through an in depth analysis of its structure and of
the detailed plan of each of Socrates' three speeches.
- August 19, 1996: Plan of the Apology: this analysis of the carefully built structure
of the Apology, so much in line with the structuring principles of
the dialogs as a whole, should cast doubt on the prevailing assumption that
the Apology was written soon after Socrates' death.
- August 14, 1996: Plans of the Republic: this page shows on the central dialog of the
set how Plato was able to combine multiple structures in the same dialog and
how a careful analysis of a dialog's "form" may help us better understand
what Plato meant.
- May 16, 1996: Initial setup
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.
Last updated April 26, 2021
© 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.