Sophiste/Politique/Philèbe/Timée/Critias

The Republic

Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, this classic text is an enquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within it. During the conversation, other questions are raised: what is goodness?; what is reality?; and what is knowledge? The Republic also addresses the purpose of education and the role of both women and men as guardians of the people. With remarkable lucidity and deft use of allegory, Plato arrives at a depiction of a state bound by harmony and ruled by philosopher kings.

La Republique (Les Integrales de philo)

La Republique, Livres 8-10 (Oeuvres Completes: Tome VII, 2ème Partie)

After an interval of some months or years, and at Phlius, a town of Peloponnesus, the tale of the last hours of Socrates is narrated to Echecrates and other Phliasians by Phaedo the 'beloved disciple.' The Dialogue necessarily takes the form of a narrative, because Socrates has to be described acting as well as speaking. The minutest particulars of the event are interesting to distant friends, and the narrator has an equal interest in them. During the voyage of the sacred ship to and from Delos, which has occupied thirty days, the execution of Socrates has been deferred. (Compare Xen. Mem.) The time has been passed by him in conversation with a select company of disciples. But now the holy season is over, and the disciples meet earlier than usual in order that they may converse with Socrates for the last time. Those who were present, and those who might have been expected to be present, are mentioned by name.

Phédon

Timaeus, one of Plato's acknowledged masterpieces, is an attempt to construct the universe & explain its contents by means of as few axioms as possible. The result is a brilliant, bizarre & surreal cosmos--the product of the rational thinking of a creator god & his astral assistants, & of purely mechanistic causes based on the behavior of the four elements. At times dazzlingly clear, at times intriguingly opaque, this was state-of-the-art science in the middle of the 4th century BCE. The world is presented as a battlefield of forces that are unified only by the will of God, who had to do the best he could with recalcitrant building materials. The unfinished companion piece, Critias, is the foundational text for the story of Atlantis. It tells how a model society became corrupt, & how a lost race of Athenians defeated the aggression of the invading Atlanteans.

Timée/Critias

Qu'est-ce que l'amour ? Tour à tour, les convives du Banquet se proposent de répondre à la question. Tous font l'éloge d'Éros en le divinisant, révélant ainsi un aspect essentiel du vécu amoureux : l'idéalisation de soi sous le regard de l'autre. Mais l'intervention de Socrate rompt le consensus. L'éros socratique n'est pas l'amour de soi que l'autre restaure en nous. Il s'agit d'un amour toujours insatisfait, se détachant des corps pour se tourner vers des objets spirituels, s'accomplissant finalement dans la quête philosophique. Comment interpréter le caractère désincarné et "platonique" de l'amour socratique, confirmé par Alcibiade qui, à la fin du dialogue, raconte comment Socrate, son amant, résiste aux attraits de ses charmes physiques ? S'agit-il vraiment d'amour ou bien plutôt d'un dépassement de l'amour, de ce que Freud appellera la "sublimation" ? Platon voudrait-il nous dire que l'amour n'est vivable que si l'on échappe en partie à son emprise ? Une oeuvre magistrale sur l'impossibilité de l'amour absolu. Vous aimerez quand même ! --Émilio Balturi

Le banquet: Ou de l'amour: genre moral

Theetete" de Platon. Philosophe grec, eleve de Socrate (427- 347 av JC).

Sophiste/Politique/Philèbe/Timée/Critias

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