Socrates spent a lifetime analysing ethical issues, and the Euthyphro finds him outside the court-house, still debating the nature of piety with an arrogant acquaintance. The Apology is both a robust rebuttal to the charges of impiety and corrupting young minds and a definitive defence of the philosopher's life. Later, condemned and imprisoned in the Crito, Socrates counters the arguments of friends urging him to escape. And finally, in the Phaedo,...

The Dialogues of Plato, written between 427 and 347 b.c., rank among the most important and influential works in Western thought. Most famous are the first four, in which Plato casts his teacher Socrates as the central disputant in colloquies that brilliantly probe a vast spectrum of philosophical ideas and issues. Socrates' ancient words are still true, and the ideas found in Plato's Dialogues still form the foundation of a thinking person's education....

Plato is both one of the great philosophers of ancient Greece and the brightest disciple of Socrates. Among his works is a series of titles collectively called Socratic dialogues. In these dialogues, certainly, Plato's most prominent work is The Republic (Politeia in the original Greek). It was written around 380 BC and is particularly rich in philosophical, political, and social terms. The central concern is the search for a formula that ensures...