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UNDERSTANDING PLATO: The Smart Student's Guide to the Socratic Dialogues and The Republic
Understanding Plato is the first book in a series on classical philosophers. It contains a complete discussion of four of the early Socratic dialogues (Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno) and Plato's longer and more famous work, The Republic. The series is designed for beginning and intermediate philosophy students who would like more depth than they would ordinarily get from books that give only outlines of the philosopher's thoughts and theories. Each book in the series focuses on both content and philosophical method. Each chapter breaks down the arguments of the philosopher into understandable parts, showing how philosophers reach their conclusions and how they defend against possible objections. Each chapter concludes with a set of questions for thought and discussion. Some questions are on topics that provide an excellent starting point for term papers. References to other books about the philosopher or the topic can be found at the end of the chapter, in footnotes, in textboxes, or at the back of the book. Other books in the Smart Student's Guide series are Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, John Locke's Second Treatise of Government, John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism and On Liberty, Immanuel Kant's Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, and David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
- GenresPhilosophy
197 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 7, 2016
272 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
About the author
Laurence D. Houlgate
12 books6 followersBorn before WWII in Los Angeles County, California and spent my entire young life going to school and college there. Fell in love with philosophy during my senior year in college, pursued and achieved a Ph.D. at UCLA and began teaching full-time in 1964 while still a grad student. Taught at Cal State Fullerton, UC Santa Barbara, Reed College (Oregon), George Mason University (Virginia), and finally settled down at California Polytechnic State University in 1979, before taking retirement in 2006. Continued to teach part-time until 2016. Married Torre, the love of my life, in the midst of these academic travels.
Wrote several books on ethics and philosophy of law (especially children's rights and family law) during my career (see author dashboard).
Hobbies include reading, writing, competitive swimming, and philately.
Wrote several books on ethics and philosophy of law (especially children's rights and family law) during my career (see author dashboard).
Hobbies include reading, writing, competitive swimming, and philately.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 8, 2025
Essentially this is an introduction to the Socratic dialogues which revolve around Socrates’ death (Euthyphro, Meno, Apology, Crito, Phaedo), and it is an introduction to the Republic.
The first part of the book looks at some of the key ideas in the dialogues, drawing out the implications of their arguments and identifying where arguments are stronger and weaker. It introduces readers to concepts like elenchus, aporia, dialogue discussions and what constitutes appropriate conclusions to arguments.
The second part of the book is devoted to the Republic. It works through the text, almost chapter by chapter, helping readers to identify the key issues in the arguments of that text, as well and where specific arguments are more and less convincing.
Ultimately the book seems to have been conceived as a textbook for an introductory course on Plato. As such, it is a helpful companion and students reading the texts with the aid of this book will certainly get to engage with some of the key ideas which constitute Plato’s philosophy.
The book’s focus as an introductory book means that it risks over-simplifying matters in places. For example, sometimes the analysis of the Republic refers to what Socrates is arguing, as the texts are about Socrates. But on other occasions the author refers to what Plato is trying to convey (though text which is about Socrates). Neither perspective is strictly speaking inaccurate, but it can become a bit confusing after a while, whether specific views belong to Plato or Socrates. It would have been helpful to pause and disentangle the issues that although the text is referring to Socrates, we have no way of knowing if Socrates in fact held any of the views attributed to him in that text.
Another place where matters were potentially over-simplified was in the author’s distinction between Science and Philosophy. Those ideas open the book, and the book also closes with a section on Methodology which re-visits the issues.
Although it is attractive to talk of Science as a matter of observation and testing hypotheses, that isn’t entirely how it pans out in reality. When theoretical physics talks of parallel universes, its difficult to envisage what evidence could confirm that particular hypothesis.
Similarly, reducing philosophy to conceptual and verbal analysis, is perhaps a little too ‘Anglo-American.’ Some European and Eastern philosophy thinks that it has practical implications, and that aspects of its insights can be observed and tested in the lives of its practitioners.
Its understandable that an introductory textbook would want to express the relationship of Science and Philosophy in nice and neat black and white categories, but perhaps students can cope with a little more ambiguity…?
Overall, this is a very readable text, with simple clear explanations. It is accessible to anyone without prior knowledge of philosophy itself, or of ancient Greek philosophy. The text is sufficiently straightforward that it could even be used with High School students.
Comments are based upon a reading of the digital version of the 2017 text.
The first part of the book looks at some of the key ideas in the dialogues, drawing out the implications of their arguments and identifying where arguments are stronger and weaker. It introduces readers to concepts like elenchus, aporia, dialogue discussions and what constitutes appropriate conclusions to arguments.
The second part of the book is devoted to the Republic. It works through the text, almost chapter by chapter, helping readers to identify the key issues in the arguments of that text, as well and where specific arguments are more and less convincing.
Ultimately the book seems to have been conceived as a textbook for an introductory course on Plato. As such, it is a helpful companion and students reading the texts with the aid of this book will certainly get to engage with some of the key ideas which constitute Plato’s philosophy.
The book’s focus as an introductory book means that it risks over-simplifying matters in places. For example, sometimes the analysis of the Republic refers to what Socrates is arguing, as the texts are about Socrates. But on other occasions the author refers to what Plato is trying to convey (though text which is about Socrates). Neither perspective is strictly speaking inaccurate, but it can become a bit confusing after a while, whether specific views belong to Plato or Socrates. It would have been helpful to pause and disentangle the issues that although the text is referring to Socrates, we have no way of knowing if Socrates in fact held any of the views attributed to him in that text.
Another place where matters were potentially over-simplified was in the author’s distinction between Science and Philosophy. Those ideas open the book, and the book also closes with a section on Methodology which re-visits the issues.
Although it is attractive to talk of Science as a matter of observation and testing hypotheses, that isn’t entirely how it pans out in reality. When theoretical physics talks of parallel universes, its difficult to envisage what evidence could confirm that particular hypothesis.
Similarly, reducing philosophy to conceptual and verbal analysis, is perhaps a little too ‘Anglo-American.’ Some European and Eastern philosophy thinks that it has practical implications, and that aspects of its insights can be observed and tested in the lives of its practitioners.
Its understandable that an introductory textbook would want to express the relationship of Science and Philosophy in nice and neat black and white categories, but perhaps students can cope with a little more ambiguity…?
Overall, this is a very readable text, with simple clear explanations. It is accessible to anyone without prior knowledge of philosophy itself, or of ancient Greek philosophy. The text is sufficiently straightforward that it could even be used with High School students.
Comments are based upon a reading of the digital version of the 2017 text.
January 25, 2019
Excellent overview of the primary points made in the Socratic Dialogues and the republic. Great primer for future readings.
March 5, 2025
Its a school book for philosophy, reasoning and logic.
September 26, 2021
There was a lot of valuable information in this book, but the format and the writing style was occasionally off-putting to me.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews