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Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues

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Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues

By: Michael Sugrue, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Michael Sugrue
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About this listen

These 16 lectures bring the Socratic quest for truth alive and explore ideas that are as vital today as they were 25 centuries ago - ideas about truth, justice, love, beauty, courage, and wisdom that can change lives and reveal the world in new ways. Here, you'll delve into the inner structure, action, and meaning of 17 of Plato's greatest dialogues, making these lectures an indispensable companion for anyone interested in philosophy in general or Platonic thought in particular.

As you'll learn, the dialogues share some general characteristics - and they all breathe with the feeling, the tension, and even the humor of great theater. Even if you don't have time to reacquaint yourself directly with Platonic texts, you'll benefit enormously from these lectures' insights into the depths of reflection opened by Socrates and Plato - arguably the most important teacher-student pairing in history.

You'll become engrossed in "the romance of the intellect," as Professor Sugrue opens a path for you into the inner structure and action of these selected dialogues, for millennia the objects of devoted study by the noblest minds. These lectures offer no easy answers. What they give instead is much better: an introduction to Platonic "meta-education," the art not of what to think but of how to think. You'll see the stunning subtlety with which Plato weaves together the strengths of philosophy and poetry, dialectic and drama, word and action. And you'll catch a glimpse of the "serious playfulness" that Socrates says the search for the good, the true, and the beautiful can inspire in the human soul.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©1996 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1996 The Great Courses
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What listeners say about Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues

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Fabulous overview of the Socratic dialogues

Michael Sugrue is an informative and entertaining lecturer on Plato's Socratic dialogues. Whatever your level of familiarity with the works, this audiobook will give you a new insight into what is perhaps the world's most important body of philosophical writings.

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Pump yer brakes, mate!

A good course with plenty of information. But....

The lecturer presents the information at a rapid pace, which I think is meant to convey excitement or passion, but instead, he just comes across as a bit of a wanker. He regularly breaks for a drink of water, obviously having exhausted his saliva glands by spraying the front row with spittle. This frenzied delivery, combined with the liberal use of jargon, gave the experience the same feel as being trapped in bathroom with a cocaine fiend during a college party. Its not necessarily a bad experience, just one thats going to be more difficult than it needs to be.

So aye, fair play. Its a good course with plenty of information. But for goodness sakes, pump yer brakes, mate!

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best audio lectures

i loved it , i wish it could be longer to be honest , but as it said to me and pushed me to read/listen to the Platonic dialogs and i ll be getting back to listen to this so many times

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an essential discussion to go along dialogues

loved it. an essential tool to go along with the dialogues. I listened to it before during and after reading them

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Outstanding Lectures on Plato and Socrates

Incredible, I learnt so much! A great introduction pre reading Plato. Fully recommend to anyone and everyone

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Only today; time better spent at home than harvard

This man's scholarship, interpretation and passion transcends the education you can receive at any institution - I know having taken the path of many and been dissatisfied by the lectureship of a prestigious many. Lectures can only take you so far; you must read the dialogues to engage with technical depth. Nonetheless, so far as method goes in education, it is pragmatic to take as a first step the deep listening to every word of Sugrues lectures. That itself the best possible introduction to Plato, and moreso the context of plato, which enlivens the deep study of Plato and makes it an easy thing to love. There is no more efficient way to understand Plato than to recieve the artistic, literary, mythological and historical context Sugrue will provide here, which enables the study of Plato's logical ideas and gives them meaning. In this meaning I was lost, even contemptuous, before Sugrue; but now I am saved. So are saved the days we inhabit; for all their disgrace, we may each of us if we are discerning access the best possible education freely, easily, if we only look for it as it is here,.

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Well worth a listen.

I really enjoyed this set of lectures, and gained some valuable knowledge in the process, it would be worth a second listen, and made me interested in reading the dialogue's myself, thank you.

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Good performance but some annoying reader habits

Brings the whole story to life.
I don’t appreciate listening to the lecturer slurping and swallowing his coffee

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A joy to listen to

Whatever Michael found in the Dialogues, it is joy. The joy seems to follow from every word, idea and observation. You must take my word on this. Oh wait, you don’t have to just listen to this audio book. Worth ten self help books.

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Yet another wonderful course from the Great Courses!

I find myself loving the Great Courses. There is so much to learn from them, taught in bitesize pieces that are wonderfully delivered. In this case, a fantastic breakdown of Plato and his dialogues, and insight to a forefather of modern philosophy in thr West, full of many great lessons and insights. Absolutely worth the listen.

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