Plato in 90 Minutes

I really enjoyed this short synopsis of Plato's life. Think of these books (the 90 minute philosopher series) as a short lecture you would attend in college. Very brief, yet there was enough detail to get a high level understanding of the timeline of Plato's life and his main achievements. For instance, I learned in this book the relationship between Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, which I had not known before. I also did not know that Plato started the first university. This was just a taste to please the palate enough to know whether you would like to find another resource to gain more detailed knowledge and a deeper look at Plato. I listened to this book as I don't have much time for reading since I am on the road so much. The narrator was great and the recording excellent (as to be expected from Blackstone Audio).

This work focuses more on the life of Plato than on his thought. I would have preferred to have read a story of Plato, which traced the development of his thought through reading the 'Dialogues'. Strathern does provide a good background description of the time, and historical circumstances in which Plato lived. But he does not in my opinion make us truly understand why in Whitehead's famous phrase ' all of Western philosophy is a footnote to Plato'. He does not too when he approaches Plato's masterpience ' The Republic ' show why and how the search for the definition of ' justice' opens the way to understanding all of Plato's thought. He does however make it clear that the gift of Plato to the Western political tradition is a problematic one, as many find in Plato's prescription for a state ruled by a philosopher- king the kernel of the totalitarian dictatorships which were the great nightmares of the twentieth century. I think he also does not make the reader aware of how 'Socratic ' Plato could be about Plato. i.e. how he even in presenting his own as it were ideal vision presents it in a form where it is questioned and made a subject for further doubt and question i.e. if it seems that Socrates asked the questions and Plato gave the answers, this is misleading. Plato also was primarily a provider of questions. It would be Aristotle who would give answers in accordance with the degree of precision he felt appropriate to each field of knowledge.

Strathern summarizes a lot of philosophy in a short book, but at time strips the meat out. This book tries to place Plato both in the context of his time and looks at the heirs of Plato in the Neoplatonists and impacts on Christianity (I thought this was a little weak). Strathern also reveals the paradoxes of Plato's life: decrying poetry but perhaps being the most poetic of the Greek philosophers and, leaning toward totalitarianism and lack of individual freedom, but being a very unique person. Strathern gives Plato 15 pages to speak for himself with selection from the Republic (of course the parable of the cave), Letters, The Law and others. Not comprehensive but worth the time!

This book is not, and was not meant to be, an in-depth analysis of the philosophy of Plato. It is a very brief overview of his life and works. I really appreciated the subtle humour which made the book fun to read.

This book will give anyone a better idea of Plato's life, time, ideas, and work. Although Strathern does not reflect on the concepts and work of Plato to an extent of understanding his actual Philosophy, but he rather briefly gives quotes and hints as to provide a basic overview of his outlook on the world in general. If Strathern was in fact to give a more comprehensive account of the ideas and work of Plato the whole point of compacting Plato's life into a "90 minute" book would be gone. I myself had a very minute understanding of the man Plato. But from reading this book I found a lot of useful information that broadened my knowledge of the life and times of Plato. In reading this book you will meet some people that changed Plato's life, aswell as the treasured wisdom Plato handed to many individuals and to the whole of society. So for the amount of time it takes to read the book in contrast with the valuable information accessible, I give this book four stars.