Plato's Lysis

Terry Penner is Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, and was, for a time, Affiliate Professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In Spring 2005 he was A. G. Leventis Visiting Research Professor of Greek in the University of Edinburgh. His previous publications include The Ascent from Nominalism: Some Existence Arguments in Plato's Middle Dialogues(1986) and numerous articles on Socrates. Christopher Rowe is Professor of Greek at the University of Durham; he was Leverhulme Personal Research Professor from 1999 until 2004. His previous publications include commentaries on four Platonic dialogues; he has edited The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought (with Malcolm Schofield, 2000) and New Perspectives on Plato, Modern and Ancient(with Julia Annas, 2002), as well as providing a new translation of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics to accompany a philosophical commentary by Sarah Broadie (2002).

• Preface; Part I. An Analysis of the Lysis: 1. 203AI–207B7: the cast assembles and the main conversation is set up; 2. 207B8–210D8 (Socrates and Lysis): do Lysis' parents really love him?; 3. 210EI–213C9: Socrates and Menexenus - how does one get a friend?; 4. 213DI–216B9: Socrates and Lysis again, then Menexenus - poets and cosmologists on what is friend of what (like of like: or opposite of opposite?); 5. 216CI–221D6: what it is that loves, what it really loves and why; 6. 221D6–222B2: the main argument reaches its conclusion; 7. 222B3–E7: some further questions from Socrates about the argument, leading to (apparent) impasse; 8. 223AI–B8: the dialogue ends - people will say that Socrates and the boys think they are friends, but they haven't been able to discover what 'the friend' is; 9. 203AI–207B7 revisited; Part II. The Theory of the Lysis: 10. A rereading of the Lysis: some preliminaries; 11. A rereading of the Lysis; 12. On seeking the good of others independently of one's own good; and other unfinished business; Epilogue; Translation of the Lysis; Bibliography; Indexes.

"...succeeds admirably in making the case for the philosophical significance of the Lysis, a dialogue which has suffered from dismissal and neglect. ...their book is philosophically provocative and engaging. It will be of vital interest to all scholars of Plato; parts of it will also be of substantial use for philosophers working on moral psychology and, in particular, on love." --Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 11/2006