Plato: A Civic Life

Great Lives of the Ancient World

by Carol Atack

Genres: Biography, Philosophy, History, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

Published January 10, 2025

Reviews

[Andrew Dockrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read Robin Waterfields excellent cradle-to-grave biography on who is arguably the great-grandfather of western philosophy, Carol Atack has released her own hot on his heels. Atack approaches her biography in much the same approach to Waterfields, trying to piece together the scraps of his life as best as she can, using many 'could have' and 'might haves' which is unavoidable given the lack of information on the subject manner.

Arguably the only real difference in approaches is that Atack uses Platos life experiences as the influence for much of his work, which she weaves more heavily into the second half of her book, which can make the biography feel a little more lopsided in the second half. she also addresses the Eleusinian Mysteries that he was involved in which Waterfield doesnt address at all. She also largely holds to the brief that it is impossible to know the order in which Plato wrote his dialogues, but does not really address their authenticity, which Waterfield does go to some trouble to investigate.

All in all, both biographies excel in what they set out to do, Atacks biography is a bit of an easier and more digestible read then Waterfields.

[Peter Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The difficulty for me reading a civic life set in Ancient Greece is my lack of familiarity with the Hellenic world and the many philosophers named therein, I’m unable to relativize such is ignorance, so hopefully this is a reasonable place to start - nevertheless this is an interesting general introduction and the opening chapters on the social-cultural structures governing the family and the polis are useful.

Excellent references, bibliographical references and indexes plus a few b&w illustrations.