文档介绍：STATESMAN
STATESMAN
By Plato
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
1
STATESMAN
INTRODUCTION AND
ANALYSIS.
In the Phaedrus, the Republic, the Philebus, the Parmenides, and the
Sophist, we may observe the tendency of Plato bine two or more
subjects or different aspects of the same subject in a single dialogue. In
the Sophist and Statesman especially we note that the discussion is partly
regarded as an illustration of method, and that analogies are brought from
afar which throw light on the main subject. And in his later writings
generally we further remark a decline of style, and of dramatic power; the
characters excite little or no interest, and the digressions are apt to overlay
the main thesis; there is not the 'callida junctura' of an artistic whole.
Both the serious discussions and the jests are sometimes out of place.
The invincible Socrates is withdrawn from view; and new foes begin to
appear under old names. Plato is now chiefly concerned, not with the
original Sophist, but with the sophistry of the schools of philosophy,
which are making reasoning impossible; and is driven by them out of the
regions of transcendental speculation back into the path mon sense.
A logical or psychological phase takes the place of the doctrine of Ideas in
his mind. He is constantly dwelling on the importance of regular
classification, and of not putting words in the place of things. He has
banished the poets, and is beginning to use a technical language. He is
bitter and satirical, and seems to be sadly conscious of the realities of
human life. Yet the ideal glory of the Platonic philosophy is not
extinguished. He is still looking for a city in which kings are either
philosophers or gods (compare Laws).
The Statesman has lost the grace and beauty of the earlier dialogues.
The mind of the writer seems to be so overpowered in the effort of thought
as to impair his style; at least his gift of expression does not keep up with
the increasing difficulty