Plato

A Very Short Introduction

By: Julia Annas

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

This lively and accessible introduction to Plato focuses on the philosophy and argument of his writings, drawing the listener into Plato's way of doing philosophy, and the general themes of his thinking. It looks at Plato as a thinker grappling with philosophical problems in a variety of ways, rather than a philosopher with a fully worked-out system. It includes a brief account of Plato's life and the various interpretations that have been drawn from the sparse remains of information. It stresses the importance of the founding of the Academy and the conception of philosophy as a subject. Julia Annas discusses Plato's style of writing: his use of the dialogue form, his use of what we today call fiction, and his philosophical transformation of myths. She also looks at his discussions of love and philosophy, his attitude to women, and to homosexual love, explores Plato's claim that virtue is sufficient for happiness, and touches on his arguments for the immortality of the soul and his ideas about the nature of the universe.

©2003 Julia Annas (P)2021 Tantor

Anti-woke reviews are dramatic

I’m not woke, but these anti-woke people are way over dramatic in their review. There was a section critiquing Plato’s ability to generate meaningful feminine progress, but not in the way you expect. She notes that he couldn’t appreciate that work of the domestic kind is just as important as the philosophic, and this note is but a small fragment of the book. Why people take offense to such small aside is beyond me, let’s be honest the philosophy is also beyond me too.

Very insightful and fun to listen to an expert.

Great text. But what’s with the narrator?

Does this narrator sound like an AI robot to you? Love the form and content of the book, though.

Enticing Introduction to Plato.

Many works of Plato were covered in this short introduction. Enough was fed to arouse our curiosity on Plato.

Nothing special

There were some kernels of knowledge dropped which was nice but overall this small book is quite the letdown. I didn't really learn anything new, but I had a nice refresher of what I haven't thought about in many years from Plato's various books. I do not recommend this.

Too judgmental

The author seems too concerned with projecting their progressive worldview back to Plato’s time. Annoying.