"Protagoras" and "Meno"

This volume contains new translations of two dialogues of Plato, the Protagoras and the Meno, together with explanatory notes and substantial interpretive essays. Robert C. Bartlett's translations are as literal as is compatible with sound English style and take into account important textual variations. Because the interpretive essays both sketch the general outlines of the dialogues and take up specific theoretical or philosophic difficulties, they will be of interest not only to those reading the dialogues for the first time but also to those already familiar with them.The Protagoras and the Meno are linked by the attention each pays to the idea of virtue: the latter dialogue focuses on the fundamental Socratic question, "What is virtue?"; the former on the specific virtue of courage, especially in its relation to wisdom. An appendix contains a short extract from Xenophon's Anabasis of Cyrus that vividly portrays the figure of Meno.

"The overall value of Bartlett's translation is very high. The footnotes are extraordinarily helpful; the prose is clear and readable; and the interpretive essays will surely prove to be an excellent source of classroom discussion. This volume is a welcome addition to Plato scholarship."—Edward Moore, St. Elias School of Orthodox Theology, Philosophy in Review, Vol. 24, No. 4-6, Aug-Dec 2004, "Robert C. Bartlett's translations of Protagoras and Meno display a degree of accuracy and literalness that makes them most suitable for scholarly and teaching purposes. The consistency with which Bartlett has translated terms enables the reader to confidently develop an interpretation of Plato's meaning as the terms recur in the dialogues. His notes and introductory essays are thoughtful, learned, and well-designed guides to assist the reader toward a serious confrontation with the philosophic issues dealt with in the texts. They raise questions, sketch lines of interpretation, and guide one toward one's own thinking rather than declaring the definitive interpretation or examining the questions exhaustively, which makes them ideal for classroom use."—James H. Nichols, Claremont McKenna College

Robert C. Bartlett is the Behrakis Professor of Hellenic Political Studies at Boston College. He is author of The Idea of Enlightenment: A Postmortem Study, editor of Xenophon's The Shorter Socratic Writings (also from Cornell) and of Pierre Bayle's Various Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet, and coeditor of Action and Contemplation: Studies in the Moral and Political Philosophy of Aristotle