Plato Digested is a blog dedicated to making the writings of the Greek philosopher Plato (427-348BCE) more accessible and engaging to the general reader. Plato’s famous dialogues between his character Socrates and a range of his friends and adversaries are re-worded and summarised in order to more easily bring out the key issues and philosophical questions, and in a way that hopefully makes it understandable too.
Every effort is made not to ‘dumb down’ Plato too much, though this is to some extent inevitable. It’s important for me to say that I don’t think that these re-writings are in any way comparable to the real thing, nor that Plato’s original writings are in some way lacking. The aim is simply to make these dialogues more accessible for the general reader, and reveal some of the fascinating philosophical problems and questions that can be found therein. Sometimes, I have added expressions, examples and other little bits to try and bring out the main arguments. Nowhere in Plato is Socrates’ pet cat, Purrthagoras, mentioned, for example. I have done this to enhance the points already there, rather than create new points or put arguments in Plato’s mouth.
All of Western philosophy has famously been called ‘footnotes to Plato’, and whether or not this is actually the case, it can’t be denied that Plato is indeed one of history’s most groundbreaking thinkers. What is also true is that it’s still a massive debate whether Plato thought exactly what history has attributed to him: for example, what his political philosophy in the Republic was aimed towards, or whether he really believed that his doctrine of the ‘forms’ was a statement of an objective, immaterial realm. Who was Socrates, Plato’s main character in the dialogues, and how well do the thoughts that Plato attributes to him reflect the real-life philosopher and mentor to Plato? All of these questions, and many more, can be engaged with through Plato’s dialogues, which I have digested on this blog.
If you’re enjoying them, pop me a message, and spread the word! Likewise for any other feedback.
Plato Digested 