On Socrates

This was a great read. It is the last of several 'study guide' books on which I had purchased on Socrates, and have found it to be the best so far. For me two things set it apart from the others. (1) Hope May provides modern day analogies for some of the concepts, making them much easier to relate to, and (2) When she gives an opinion - she/he provides reasons, allowing the reader to make up their own mind. I also found the book covered more ground than the others WITHOUT waffling. The only thing that 'ticked me off a little' was the amount errors in the book's grammar! Someone was using 'spell check' for this book! (The words were spelt correctly but didn't fit the sentence appropriately!) This happens about 10-15 times throughout this short book - mostly in the beginning. In spite of this flaw I gave it 5 stars because the content far outweighed the 'wrong word frustrations'. I'd read anything by this author, and am now also inclined to hunt for more books in this series.

A more concise, informative review of Socrates could not be written. Many a Philosophy student has spent countless agonizing hours reading and re-reading the platonic dialogues to gain a glimpse into the wisdom that was Socrates. The author here, sums it up, in a no-larger-than-cliff-notes-format, making the world of Philosophy so much more accessible to the novice, like myself. She gives detailed background accounts of the political and social life of athens at the time, describing how the comentary of Socrates related to the various classes in the world's first democracy; making this book a must for the would be philosopher, or historian. No scholarly knowledge of Plato is needed to understand the message Socrates has to offer. Dr. May uses ordinary language and great analogies to explain just how it made perfect sense, for Socrates to continue the great search for wisdom, while maintaining his firm belief that Human knowledge is worth little or nothing, and hence unobtainable. Readers of this book will gain a deep understanding of what Socrates meant by "The unexamined life is not worth living". The last section of the book, entitled "The End of the Examined Life" portrays Socrates' deep moral convictions, as he refuses to abandon his principals even in the face of death. This makes a great companion to any philosophy, acnient history or humanities course dealing with ancient greece, or read it on your own to get the jist of what Socrates was all about.