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Protagoras

Protagoras
List Price: $7.95
Our Price: $7.95
Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks
Publisher: Hackett Pub Co Inc
Written By: Plato, Stanley Lombardo, Karen Bell
Average Reader Rating: Average rating of 3.5/5Average rating of 3.5/5Average rating of 3.5/5Average rating of 3.5/5Average rating of 3.5/5

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 170
EAN: 9780872200944
ISBN: 0872200949
Label: Hackett Pub Co Inc
Manufacturer: Hackett Pub Co Inc
Number Of Pages: 59
Publication Date: 1992-03
Publisher: Hackett Pub Co Inc
Studio: Hackett Pub Co Inc

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Editorial Review:

Lombardo and Bell have translated this important early dialogue on virtue, wisdom, and the nature of sophistic teaching into an idiom remarkable for its liveliness and subtlety. Michael Frede has provided a substantial introduction that illuminates the dialogue's perennial interest, its Athenian political background, and the particular difficulties and ironic nuances of its argument.


Reader Reviews for Protagoras:

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Good Translation, Great Commentary
Comment: It would be good first to clear up a confusion which is actually encouraged by Amazon. There are two distinct editions of Taylor's translation of & commentary on the Protagoras: One is the "World's Classics" edition, first published in 1996 and reissued in 2002; the other is the "Clarendon Plato" edition, first published in 1976 and republished in 1991 with significant revisions and additional material. The Clarendon Plato edition is the longer, more scholarly version, while the World's Classics edition is the one evidently intended for a wider audience, particularly the 21st-century college student. Although I haven't thoroughly compared the translations of the two word-for-word, I suspect that the translations are virtually the same. However, the *commentaries* of the two are quite different, the Clarendon Plato edition's Commentary being much longer and detailed and more scholarly (162 pages) than the World's Classic edition's Explanatory Notes (15 pages); the latter are presumeably a substantially abbreviated version of the former, with many omissions. This is obviously the major difference between the two editions. The Clarendon edition is far superior, but is probably prohibitively expensive for most readers (unless they can find a used copy).

The problem is that Amazon confuses the editions by listing the Customer Reviews for one edition in the Customer Reviews of the other, and by using the World's Classics edition when you "Search Inside" the Clarendon Plato edition.

On to my "review": Christopher Taylor is a Plato scholar second to none. His explanatory notes and especially his commentary are well worth consulting. The Commentary in the Clarendon Plato edition is unsurpassed in modern Plato scholarship.

His translation, though not absolutely literal, does not go too far in "modernizing" Plato's text either (as a previous reviewer suggests). To his credit, Taylor has taken some pains to ensure that key philosophical terms are translated consistently.

Since Amazon's Search function isn't always helpful, here are links to the two editions:
World's Classics - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0192804014
Clarendon Plato - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0198239343

Customer Rating: Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5
Summary: Ugh
Comment: The most outstanding thing about this book is the translation. Absolutely horrific. The author seems to have tried to modernize the language so it would be accessible to a wider reading audience. Probably an audience of ghetto high school students since charaters are saying things like "What's up?", "It's pretty obvious", and "I guess so." This translation is not worth buying for personal reading, nor is it appropriate to college courses.

That said, the 27 page introduction is quite good and worth reading. It should have been published as a separate essay.



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