Plato and His Contemporaries (RLE: Plato)

This book helps understand Platos writings by describing the circumstances in which they were produced. The author begins with an account of Platos life and development and a brief analysis of some of the more difficult points arising from the criticism of Platos writings. The remainder of the work considers the total setting political, literary and philosophical in which Platos writings were produced. There are extensive appendices on the Platonic Epistles, Aristotle and the Theory of Ideas, and on the post-Aristotelian tradition. The result is both a lucid account of Plato himself and a comprehensive view of culture in fifth century Greece.