When I wake in the morn, I will make but one post throughout the day. It will concern what might be the greatest intellectual achievement an Irishman will ever summit. Truly magnificent work this man has finished. But you will discover its nature tomorrow at noon, for now I must rest.
This is the first, and perhaps the last, time that I will seriously recommend something for your purchase. Dr. David Horan, a Plato scholar who has specialized in Plato's Parmenides with his doctoral thesis "The Argumentative Unity of Plato’s Parmenides," has recently published a complete set of Plato's works, all carefully translated into English by his hand. He is the first to complete this prodigious endeavor since Benjamin Jowett's edition was completed in 1871.
And Horan's approach to translation is singular and necessary in these times. Many modern translations have a propensity to bring the author down to the level of the multitude. Not Horan, who states that his goal is to follow the philosophy of Friedrich Schleiermacher: rather than leaving the reader in peace and accommodating the text to modern colloquialisms, Horan aims to "move the reader toward the writer." His translations are challenging but clear—exacting yet lucid—preserving the disputatious and intellectually rigorous nature of Plato's dialogues. He brings you up to Plato's level rather than bringing Plato down to you.
For example, he prefers to translate the Greek word aretē as the capacious and cognate-driven (the cognate is "aristos"—meaning "best") "excellence" rather than the more traditional but emollient and overly narrow "virtue"—Socrates speaks of the aretē of a human being as justice, but also refers to the aretē of a horse, and it seems a bit queer to the ear to talk about "the virtue of a horse."
Furthermore, this volume has the benefit of consistency: because the entire corpus was translated by one person, readers profit by a highly consistent use of philosophic terminology and narrative voice across all the dialogues. This is a distinct advantage over the standard, multi-author academic collections like John M. Cooper's, which was my erstwhile recommendation.
I shall leave below a sample for your perusal:
Socrates’ farewell address to the jurors who have condemned him, from Apology (41c-42a):
Sixteen years of arduous, assiduous, and (I'm sure at times) aporetic work by Horan—and it's available for free. You can read all his translations online at Platonic Foundation (dot) Org. He notes that he believes it would "be inappropriate to introduce any commercial considerations" and that "these translations, in their current state, are now being made freely available, without charge, to anyone who wishes to read them and make use of them." But you should consider buying a copy. This might very well be one of the most impressive feats of classical and philosophical scholarship completed in your lifetime, and a physical copy of this literary gift to humanity might look nice on your bookshelf or mantel.
https://gandoneditions.com/products/the-dialogues-of-plato-a-new-translation-by-david-horan
And Horan's approach to translation is singular and necessary in these times. Many modern translations have a propensity to bring the author down to the level of the multitude. Not Horan, who states that his goal is to follow the philosophy of Friedrich Schleiermacher: rather than leaving the reader in peace and accommodating the text to modern colloquialisms, Horan aims to "move the reader toward the writer." His translations are challenging but clear—exacting yet lucid—preserving the disputatious and intellectually rigorous nature of Plato's dialogues. He brings you up to Plato's level rather than bringing Plato down to you.
For example, he prefers to translate the Greek word aretē as the capacious and cognate-driven (the cognate is "aristos"—meaning "best") "excellence" rather than the more traditional but emollient and overly narrow "virtue"—Socrates speaks of the aretē of a human being as justice, but also refers to the aretē of a horse, and it seems a bit queer to the ear to talk about "the virtue of a horse."
Furthermore, this volume has the benefit of consistency: because the entire corpus was translated by one person, readers profit by a highly consistent use of philosophic terminology and narrative voice across all the dialogues. This is a distinct advantage over the standard, multi-author academic collections like John M. Cooper's, which was my erstwhile recommendation.
I shall leave below a sample for your perusal:
Socrates’ farewell address to the jurors who have condemned him, from Apology (41c-42a):
But you too, gentlemen, judges, should be hopeful in the face of death, and hold this one precept as true: nothing bad comes to a good man either during his life or after death, nor are his affairs neglected by the gods. Nor have my present circumstances come about by accident. Rather, it is obvious to me that at this stage it is better for me to die and be quit of troubles. That is why the sign did not deter me, and I am not at all angered by those who voted against me, or by my accusers. And yet, this was not what they had in mind when they voted to condemn me or accused me. No, their intention was to harm me. For this they deserve censure. Well, I ask this much of them: when my sons are of age, punish them, gentlemen, with the same afflictions as I inflicted upon you if you think they are caring for money, or anything else, before excellence, or if they think they are something when they are nothing. Reproach them as I have reproached you, because they care not for what they ought, and think they amount to something when they are worth nothing. And if you do this, myself and my sons will have received just treatment at your hands. But now, it is time to depart, I to die, you to live. Which of us goes to the better lot is unknown to anyone but God.
Sixteen years of arduous, assiduous, and (I'm sure at times) aporetic work by Horan—and it's available for free. You can read all his translations online at Platonic Foundation (dot) Org. He notes that he believes it would "be inappropriate to introduce any commercial considerations" and that "these translations, in their current state, are now being made freely available, without charge, to anyone who wishes to read them and make use of them." But you should consider buying a copy. This might very well be one of the most impressive feats of classical and philosophical scholarship completed in your lifetime, and a physical copy of this literary gift to humanity might look nice on your bookshelf or mantel.
https://gandoneditions.com/products/the-dialogues-of-plato-a-new-translation-by-david-horan