UGA: Ancient Philosophy

A wonderful collection. It borders on over-interpretation at times, and can be a little hard to follow at others, but is nonetheless essential for Platonic scholarship.

When reading Brann on Plato, I found that in some respects her writings are similar to others like Strauss and Bloom with respect to the seriousness with which Plato was treated and, I should say firmly, I think this is at bottom true. Yet there was this nagging in the back of my mind, which I could not ever quite put into words, that Brann was different. The source of this difference, which is of course a respectable difference by all means, I think became apparent in her essay on translating the Sophist, in which, at the end, she admits that she is does not find Plato to be esoteric. For example, she dedicates much effort to making sense of and understanding, the “ideas,” whereas Strauss, in his essay on the Republic in The City and Man, makes a statement to the effect that no one has made clear what the ideas actually mean. Of course, I believe Brann wrote this after that essay, but, nonetheless, I think that points to a serious disagreement. I don’t mean by this that I don’t like Brann—quite the opposite; her essays on the Sophist and the Phaedo were very helpful and insightful, and I find her style of prose enjoyable—it often brought a smile to my face—and possessing a very non-abstract clarity. One other perhaps telling detail I found was that Brann seems to give some credence, although I’m not sure how much, to the notion of “dating” the dialogues by composition, though, equally if not more, she also emphasizes the dramatic aspect.

All that being said, I should reaffirm that Brann is very delightful to read and ever insightful, especially as a teacher with a view to her students.

Brilliant essays and lectures about Plato's Socratic dialogues. They are philosophy in and of themselves, though, and one rightly needs a secondary source about the secondary source to truly understand them. The chapters that are lectures are much easier to understand. Brann is absolutely brilliant:

Somewhere in here Books 5-7 in Plato's Republic are called "the education of Glaucon."

Arguably the best secondary source on Plato in any language that I'm aware of (mainly the European ones) and certainly the best on the Republic.