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Reading Plato | Resources | Summer 2021

6.30 pm to 8 pm, Mondays from 1 February

Zoom link for all sessions

Dial-in back-up for connection disruptions: +61 3 7018 2005 | Meeting ID: 870 3941 4197 | Password: 355450

Course Outline and weekly readings

Download Loeb Classical Library Greek/English edition

Buy Penguin translation Last Days of Socrates

Catch-up class videos

Week 1

First Session (01/02/21)   | Philosophy, Scepticism and Wisdom    | Apology page 20c to 23e

Week 2

Second Session (08/02/21) | What is Justice? | Euthyphro (complete)

If the ‘cup’ exercise is not working for you, then why not try one of two classic exercises that take you to the very same conundrum. The first is Rene Descartes’ account of his Meditations. The second is Bertrand Russell’s Problems of Philosophy. Both accounts are very readable and readily available in many editions. In the first place, our interest is the conundrum itself, to see it clearly. Later, you may consider how each proceeds to different but similar solutions, and how Plato took in the other direction. The conundrum is often called the problem of reference in epistemology, made famous by Bishop Berkeley‘s critique of John Locke.


Week 3

Third Session (15/02/21) | Body & Soul | Phaedo page 60b to 69e

Week 4


Fourth Session    | The other side of Things    | Phaedo page 70a to 79e

During this zoom presentation Bernie was talking to a slide show that did not appear. These slides will be presented again next week.

Other philosophers mentioned in the Session 4 discussion include:


Week 5

Fifth Session | The absolute reality of the forms | Phaedo page 84c to 100a

Week 6

Sixth Session    | What is Platonism?    | Phaedo page 100c to 105e