Reading Plato in Antiquity

This important collection of original essays is the first to concentrate at length on how the ancients responded to the challenge of reading and interpreting Plato, primarily between 100 BC and AD, edited by Lloyd Gerson, University of Toronto; 600. It incorporates the fruits of recent research into late antique philosophy, in particular its approach to hermeneutical problems. While a number of prominent figures, including Apuleius, Galen, Plotinus, Porphyry and lamblichus, receive detailed attention, several essays concentrate on the important figure of Proclus, in whom Neoplatonic interpretation of Plato reaches it most impressive, most surprising and most challenging form. The essays appear in chronological of their focal interpreters, giving a sense of the development of Platonist exegesis in this period. Reflecting their devotion to a common theme, the essays have been carefully edited and are presented with a composite bibliography and indices.

Harold Tarrant is Professor of Classics, University of Newcastle (Australia) and the author of many books, including Plato's First Interpreters (2000) and Recollecting Plato's Meno (2005), both published by Duckworth. Dirk Baltzly is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Monash University (Australia) and co-editor (with Harold Tarrant) of Pleasure and Power, Virtues and Vices: essays in ancient moral philosophy (2001).