Background. Cooper 1997b is important not only for its widely used translations, but for Cooper’s sober and wide-ranging introduction. Nails 2002 is a reference for information about the persons in the dialogues, their historical context, and evidence for dramatic dates. Harrison 1968, 1971 remains unsurpassed for the details of the issues that arise in connection with the trial and execution of Socrates. MacDowell 1978 is essential for understanding the major changes in Athenian legal procedures at the end of the fifth and beginning of the fourth century. Mackenzie 1981 is an authoritative, comprehensive source on punishment, thus important for the views Socrates alludes to in Theaetetus and articulates in Apology. Camp 1992 includes line drawings and photographs of places and artifacts relevant to Socrates’ last days; and Bloch 2001 identifies Conium maculatum as the specific hemlock poison that produces the exact symptoms described by Plato. Nails 1995, in a study of Socratic and Platonic method, examines a variety of conflicting claims about Plato’s philosophical development. Thesleff 1967 is a handbook of Platonic composition technique, dialogue structure, and comparative classification of styles.
Interpretations. Clay 2000, brilliant and idiosyncratic, develops the explicit allusions in the texts insightfully. Blondell 2002 provides a deeply moving treatment of the dramatic elements of the Theaetetus and especially of its digression (ch. 5). McPherran 1996 seeks the religion of the historical Socrates through an extensive survey of Greek religious practices, close readings of Socratic texts, especially the Euthyphro, and dialogue with Vlastos 1989 (an influential paper taking the position that Socrates rationalized Athenian religion). Vlastos 1983 argues that Socrates preferred democracy to other forms of government but faulted men who misused democratic institutions for unjust ends. Weiss 1998 argues persuasively that the personified laws of the Crito do not speak for Socrates, who follows the argument that seems best to him. Euben 1997 is an engaging essay on Socrates’ role as educator within the democracy, drawing compelling parallels to contemporary culture-war debates.
Controversies raised by Socrates trial. Dover 1968 describes the intellectual milieu in Athens in the late 420s, arguing that the Socrates of Aristophanes’ Clouds, whom the jury confused with the historical Socrates, was a composite of foreign and local intellectuals. Woozley 1979 argues that disobedience to law would be permissible for Socrates only if the illegal action were itself intended to persuade. Kraut 1984 goes further, examining Socrates’ attitude toward democracy and arguing that living an examined life would require Socrates, if he disobeyed a law, to persuade a court that he had been right to disobey. But other authors have disagreed. R. Allen 1984 argues that Socrates’ foremost commitment was not to laws, but to a ‘‘single, self-consistent standard of justice, fixed in the nature of things’’ against which any set of laws must be measured. Burnyeat 1988 finds Socrates guilty of not believing in the gods in which the city believes, amidst a masterful review of Stone 1988; the great journalist Stone had cited political reasons for Socrates’ conviction, paying tribute to Athenian democracy by telling ‘‘Athens’ side of the Socrates story.’’ Brickhouse and Smith 1989 is a watershed work on the arguments, historicity, and context of Plato’s Apology, downplaying the role of politics in a miscarriage of justice that resulted in Socrates’ conviction. Similarly, Reeve 1989 argues that the Socrates of the Apology, having defended himself convincingly against the indictment, was unjustly convicted. According to Brickhouse and Smith 1994, however, Socrates always obeys the law, which it is always just to do; thus obeying an unjust law would not bring blame to Socrates but to the legislators and the law itself.
World History
