SOCRATES TRONIST AND MORAL PHILOSOPHER GREGORY VLASTOS Phi Emeritus Profs at Princeton University and al the ifm at Berkely CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge New York Port Chesur Melbourne Sydney‘This study of the most enigmatic figure of Greek philosophy reclaims Socrates’ ground-breaking originality. It argues for a Socrates who, though. long overshadowed by hie successors Plato and Aristotle, marked the tric turning-point in Greek philosophy, religion, and ethics. The quest for the historical figure facuses on the Socrates of Plato's easlier dialogues, setting im in sharp contrast to that other Socrates of later dialogues, where he is used as a mouthpiece for Plato's often anti-Socratic doctrine. At the heart of the book is the paradoxical nature of Socratic thought Bur the paradoxes are explained, not explained away. The book highlights the censions in the Socratic search for the answer (© the question “How should we live?" Conceived as a divine mandate, the search is eartied out through elenctic argument, and dominated by an uncompromising rationalism. The magnetic Quality of Sacraces’ personalicy is allowed ta emerge throughout the bookPublished hy: the Pres Syndicate of the University of Cambridge I dedicate this book to colleagues and students whose “The Pie uiling: Trampngon ren, Cambridge cee artnership has shaped my search Wo Stamford Read, Oakleigh, Melbourne 31G0r"usaa ee ere © Cambridge Universi Pres sept Berkeley (1979-8: rt pata 991 Cambridge (1985-4 Printed in Great Britain by the University Press, Caumtiridye Cornell (1986) British Litsory cataloguing im publication data Su Andrews (1981 Viastos, Gregory Toronto (1978) 1+. Greek philosophy, ancient period. Socrates 1 Te 1 3e450 8 paperback