Undergraduates frequently encounter Plato through the Apology. But how does one move from impressions of this exceptional dialogue to philosophical and historical scholarship? This fine anthology, from a 2015 conference in Bergen, Norway, supplies this pedagogical need. The 11 essays survey cruxes of the dialogue that Gro Rørstadbotten (in his essay "Socrates's Telling of the Truth") calls the "point zero," where Plato's Socrates meets his historical counterpart. Most essays problematize Socrates himself. Arlene Saxonhouse sees tensions between democracy and "shameless" speech (parrhesia). Other contributors link Socrates's rhetoric to history. Rørstadbotten reviews the amnesty law that prohibited litigious reference to the atrocities of the oligarchy. Hallvard Fossheim faults Socrates regarding Aristotle’s account of virtue—Socrates's cleverness, poverty, and lack of straightforward political engagement compromise practical wisdom. The eminent Paul Woodruff argues that Socrates's exhortation to Athens is strange unless understood as a call to jurors "to examine themselves and live in accordance with human limitations." Such insights supplement those in previous works on either the broader philosophy of Socrates (e.g., Thomas Brickhouse and Nicholas Smith's The Philosophy of Socrates, CH, Jul'00, 37-6200) or on his rhetoric (I. F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates, CH, Nov'88, 26-1493).



Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

Choice Reviews

The book offers fresh perspectives on Plato’s Apology of Socrates by reexamining controversies about the image of Socrates as the embodiment of philosophy in classical Athens from scholars with different disciplinary backgrounds in philosophy and classics. . . It is a solid companion text meant to supplement the current scholarship on Plato’s Apology by providing different viewpoints not previously considered in a single volume. . . . As a companion text, Readings of Plato’s Apology of Socrates is helpful for the scholar or teacher of Plato’s texts. Each essay gives an extensive review of the literature in Anglo-American scholarship within the last 50 years in the endnotes. The bibliography is extensive. One undoubtedly will find points of disagreement and departure; however, these disagreements speak to the anthology’s usefulness in shaping future work on Plato’s dialogues. . . I recommend the anthology to the academic community.

Polis