Cratylus 论语言与名称：克拉底鲁认为名称自然生成并符合事物之自然，赫谟根尼以名称为人制（被批判），命名即摹仿本性；事物基于同一，因此应当研究事物本身以获得知识和正确名称；
*Alcibiades 1-2 公正的标准，灵魂有美德方能统治，认识自我灵魂中的神圣部分，城邦使人堕落；斯多亚区分正常者与疯子，惟有知道何者为善的知识，懂得如何对神和人行事讲话，方能使灵魂和城邦走上正道，祛除灵魂上的雾气；
Hipparchus 论贪婪：从无价值者中获利还是所有人皆贪婪？
*Rival Lovers 哲学何谓：哲学并非全部技艺；鲜有人能理性自控，权威唯一；
Theages 论灵异和神迹，除爱情之外一无所知的苏格拉底却能在谈话中改善道德；
Euthydemus 驳斥智者偷换学习之概念、虚无主义立场与对事物的淆同；
Gorgias 修辞术与演讲术之定义，孰者为正义：弱肉强食，还是自我节制、改善并教养公民的灵魂，使其过上追求善的理性生活？
Hippias Maj&Min 美是实存，智慧是美；诚实与说谎，有意无意孰恶；
Menexenus 反伯利克里的葬辞，希腊互争是不义之战；
Clitophon 批评苏格拉底未指出公正之产生；
Critias 亚特兰蒂斯的堕落与神的审判：沉没；
Minos 现实的法是习俗和城邦的命令，理想的法是发现永恒的真相；
*Epinomis 智慧的技艺是天文学，五种基本元素，灵魂为生成的原因，天体为神及其影像；
*Sisyphus 商议不可能，学习方治邦。

In Plato's dialogues, The Republic is the best ancient/Classical political philosophy book (in mathematicist rationalist idealism,) about what society could be like, that includes other topics like philosophy of mind. Maybe some others are just as good (such as Aristotle's) but I forgot. Most of Plato's ideas are timeless, and republic, originally (before the term was altered/demonized) ‘aristocracy’ (‘rule by the best,’ not nobles/royals), now renamed ‘meritocracy’ (rule by the meritorious) is still a system that humanity should try. I liked the various parables about philosophy of mind and society, such as the cave, the sun, and the divided line. A serious student of Plato might be suggested to read certain other dialogues first (I'm not sure which, except they're some of the shorter ones,) which I read some of the beginner ones (forgot which) but The Republic might be most well-known because it's book-length and has more ideas. All of Plato's dialogues are classics, that Western philosophy is said to be footnotes to, that then lead people to the door to Hegel (like Pythagoras, Plato, Descartes, and Leibniz, a mathematicist rationalist idealist.)

Socrates has to be a joke. All he does is ask loaded questions that are specifically designed to piss people off. He literally humblebrags, "An Oracle called me the wisest man ever, but I didn't believe it, but then after some thinking, I realized I indeed was" (Apology). No wonder why after his annoying speech, even MORE people voted for his death than they had before.

The dialectic structure is a headache to read because the arguments snake about endlessly, going in circles and even leading to points where Socrates and his interlocutor end up with the opposite view (Protagoras). This is made worse by his insanely shaky and loaded premises that are like a small ice cream cone stacked with 5 scoops of ice cream. Indeed, Socrates poses the weirdest arguments ever. Anyway, I loathe Socrates and I shall not read him again.

Benjamin Jowett's introduction to Phaedo is worth the book itself. Excellent.

Great edition, includes some pseudo-platonic texts included in the original edition of Thrasyllus

Timaeus (06/26/23 - 06/27/23): A kind of rationalist theogony. Constantly reminded me of Freud's "An Outline of Psycho-Analysis" in the sweep of its imaginative/hypothetical vision for the basic constituents of reality. Also reveals Plato's esoteric bent, in that he believes all this philosophizing in the end is in service of a kind of gnosis of the divine, where one's inner revolutions are aligned with those of the cosmos, and one gets to know their own immortal soul. In this respect he is similar to Empedocles and Emerson. The latter half of the text is an explication of Platonic Solids and the foundation of earth-fire-water-air and all the consequences of this for matter, perception, change, diseases, and basically all the sciences. That is probably why this section is the driest, but also very influential on alchemy.

Critias (06/28/23): Dry details of Atlantis, but Plato’s imagination with detail is immense.

The Republic (06/28/23 - 07/05/23): Amazing total vision of human life as state and soul. Covers in addition to so much else, the three pillars of Platonism. The Forms, the immortal soul, and the use of reason to grasp the Forms. Esoteric highlights include the Sun as analogous to the Form of the Good, the Divided Line, and the Allegory of the Cave, which itself is an account of ascent, a very influential trope of Plato’s

Parmenides (07/05/23): Skipped the latter two-thirds. Unreadable.

Phaedo (07/06/23): Socrates’s death and immortality of the soul. Most Pythagorean of the dialogues. The myth at the end is Pythagorean. Socrates mentions how doing philosophy is dying before death, very similar to the language of the mystery cult rituals. Once again, as in Phaedrus and Symposium, we have Socrates stripping these mysteries of their physical rituals, and claiming that it’s the mind that’s important, in particular, if one philosophizes and attains to the Forms they will have a better rebirth.

Phaedrus (07/09/23): Socrates and Phaedrus lounging in nature. Brilliant dialogue about the nature of language. But Plato here seems to hold a contradictory view, that the philosopher can use dialectic to get to the truth, but also that everything written down is inherently false. Esoteric elements include the Chariot Allegory, as characteristic of Plato associating the “cosmological” ascent up as good, weaved with astronomy, as opposed to the catabasis, or descent down into the underworld for knowledge. And Socrates in the dialogue extolling mantis and mania, divine madness, as a kind of higher state.

Symposium (07/10/23): Round the table, each giving his encomium on Eros, Socrates being the last, giving his story of Diotima. The part just after with drunken Alcibiades is both touching and hilarious. Similar to the Phaedrus in some ways, this dialogue has Socrates extolling Eros insofar as it’s Platonic Love. But this is taken further, in using visible beauty to propel yourself into contemplation of Beauty itself, once again we have the inner epistemological ascent to the Forms.

The books I read all had good modern sounding translations. The introductory notes before each book provided a good overview and there are footnotes for most of the names and quotes that get referred. If you are looking for commentary, diagrams, or lots of historical references then you would be better off with a translation of just a single book from an academic publisher, otherwise wish this a nice edition which gives you access to all of Plato’s work.

2021-11-17 update:
The works of Plato are always the starting point for a student of philosophy. Written in the form of dialogue these are some of the best written literature that exist. Socrates is one of the most memorable characters in history. There is a rare quality here. In essence it is clarity. Only a few philosophers wrote like this. There is a certain freshness. Among those you might find Plato, Seneca, Nietzsche, Descartes, Mill and Russell.

”For I go around doing nothing but persuading both young and old among you not to care for your body or your wealth in preference to or as strongly as for the best possible state of your soul, as I say to you: Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively" p.28

“For this is an experience which is characteristic of a philosopher, this wondering: this is where philosophy begins and nowhere else.” p.173

“Now my art of midwifery is just like theirs in most respects. The difference is that I attend men and not women, and that I watch over the labor of their souls, not of their bodies. And the most important thing about my art is the ability to apply all possible tests to the offspring, to determine whether the young mind is being delivered of a phantom, that is, an error, or a fertile truth. For one thing which I have in common with the ordinary midwifes is that I myself am barren of wisdom. The common reproach against me is that I am always asking questions of other people but never express my own views about anything, because there is no wisdom in me; and that is true enough...
And yet it is clear that this is not due to anything they have learned from me; it is that they discover within themselves a multitude of beautiful things, which they bring forth into the light. But it is I, with God’s help, who deliver them of this offspring.” p.167

A really great book with a very informative general introduction and very helpful introductions before each dialogue.

The value of Plato is beyond words, though perhaps I will provide a fuller review in time. I read the entire corpus.

I read the Meno and the Republic (352 pages) for HUMS2000 at Carleton University.

Hard to understand without instruction, but I tried as best I could.