In article <C5YHj.2427$lV1.447@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, AJA says...
>
[snip]
>Wonderful pieces of literature we should all read. The Tibetan Book of
the
>Dead,
Not sure why you includes this as 'wonderful'...
> even Plato's Timaes, and The Republic,
These are both great books, but they are NOT what Plato intended as
introductory
works. Rather, the common choices for college courses, the Apology, Crito,
Euthyphro, all make much better introductions.
Also im****tant are the Meno, Euthyphro, Gorgias and Theaetetus. All of
these are
more fundamental than the Timaeus. And they all make more lively reading
than
the Republic, with its long chain of "Yes, Socrates", "But of course,
Socrates"
and a thousand variations on those;)
We even have anecdotal evidence that Plato did not lecture on the topics
of the
Timaeus until the student was quite advanced -- and over 40.
The Gorgias was particular popular among Christian Greeks of the Byzantine
Empire, because of the 'myth' that sounded _so_ much like the Christian
teaching
of rewards/punishments in the next life.
[snip]
--
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Subducat se sibi ut haereat Deo
Quidquid boni habet tribuat illi a quo factus est
(Sanctus Aurelius Augustinus, Ser. 96)
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