Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues cover art

Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues

By: Michael Sugrue, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Michael Sugrue
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £25.99

Buy Now for £25.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

These 16 lectures bring the Socratic quest for truth alive and explore ideas that are as vital today as they were 25 centuries ago - ideas about truth, justice, love, beauty, courage, and wisdom that can change lives and reveal the world in new ways. Here, you'll delve into the inner structure, action, and meaning of 17 of Plato's greatest dialogues, making these lectures an indispensable companion for anyone interested in philosophy in general or Platonic thought in particular.

As you'll learn, the dialogues share some general characteristics - and they all breathe with the feeling, the tension, and even the humor of great theater. Even if you don't have time to reacquaint yourself directly with Platonic texts, you'll benefit enormously from these lectures' insights into the depths of reflection opened by Socrates and Plato - arguably the most important teacher-student pairing in history.

You'll become engrossed in "the romance of the intellect," as Professor Sugrue opens a path for you into the inner structure and action of these selected dialogues, for millennia the objects of devoted study by the noblest minds. These lectures offer no easy answers. What they give instead is much better: an introduction to Platonic "meta-education," the art not of what to think but of how to think. You'll see the stunning subtlety with which Plato weaves together the strengths of philosophy and poetry, dialectic and drama, word and action. And you'll catch a glimpse of the "serious playfulness" that Socrates says the search for the good, the true, and the beautiful can inspire in the human soul.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©1996 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1996 The Great Courses
Classics Collections Witty Thought-Provoking Inspiring Ancient History Greece
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Ethics of Aristotle cover art
The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition cover art
The American Civil War cover art
The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World cover art
No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life cover art
Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion cover art
The Iliad of Homer cover art
The Passions: Philosophy and the Intelligence of Emotions cover art
Think like a Stoic cover art
The Greek World cover art
Norse Mythology cover art
Plato's Republic cover art
The Philosopher's Toolkit: How to Be the Most Rational Person in Any Room cover art
What the F cover art
The Socratic Way of Questioning cover art
Plato's Apology cover art

What listeners say about Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    150
  • 4 Stars
    28
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    131
  • 4 Stars
    19
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    134
  • 4 Stars
    17
  • 3 Stars
    9
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fabulous overview of the Socratic dialogues

Michael Sugrue is an informative and entertaining lecturer on Plato's Socratic dialogues. Whatever your level of familiarity with the works, this audiobook will give you a new insight into what is perhaps the world's most important body of philosophical writings.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Pump yer brakes, mate!

A good course with plenty of information. But....

The lecturer presents the information at a rapid pace, which I think is meant to convey excitement or passion, but instead, he just comes across as a bit of a wanker. He regularly breaks for a drink of water, obviously having exhausted his saliva glands by spraying the front row with spittle. This frenzied delivery, combined with the liberal use of jargon, gave the experience the same feel as being trapped in bathroom with a cocaine fiend during a college party. Its not necessarily a bad experience, just one thats going to be more difficult than it needs to be.

So aye, fair play. Its a good course with plenty of information. But for goodness sakes, pump yer brakes, mate!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

best audio lectures

i loved it , i wish it could be longer to be honest , but as it said to me and pushed me to read/listen to the Platonic dialogs and i ll be getting back to listen to this so many times

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

an essential discussion to go along dialogues

loved it. an essential tool to go along with the dialogues. I listened to it before during and after reading them

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding Lectures on Plato and Socrates

Incredible, I learnt so much! A great introduction pre reading Plato. Fully recommend to anyone and everyone

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Only today; time better spent at home than harvard

This man's scholarship, interpretation and passion transcends the education you can receive at any institution - I know having taken the path of many and been dissatisfied by the lectureship of a prestigious many. Lectures can only take you so far; you must read the dialogues to engage with technical depth. Nonetheless, so far as method goes in education, it is pragmatic to take as a first step the deep listening to every word of Sugrues lectures. That itself the best possible introduction to Plato, and moreso the context of plato, which enlivens the deep study of Plato and makes it an easy thing to love. There is no more efficient way to understand Plato than to recieve the artistic, literary, mythological and historical context Sugrue will provide here, which enables the study of Plato's logical ideas and gives them meaning. In this meaning I was lost, even contemptuous, before Sugrue; but now I am saved. So are saved the days we inhabit; for all their disgrace, we may each of us if we are discerning access the best possible education freely, easily, if we only look for it as it is here,.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Well worth a listen.

I really enjoyed this set of lectures, and gained some valuable knowledge in the process, it would be worth a second listen, and made me interested in reading the dialogue's myself, thank you.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good performance but some annoying reader habits

Brings the whole story to life.
I don’t appreciate listening to the lecturer slurping and swallowing his coffee

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A joy to listen to

Whatever Michael found in the Dialogues, it is joy. The joy seems to follow from every word, idea and observation. You must take my word on this. Oh wait, you don’t have to just listen to this audio book. Worth ten self help books.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Yet another wonderful course from the Great Courses!

I find myself loving the Great Courses. There is so much to learn from them, taught in bitesize pieces that are wonderfully delivered. In this case, a fantastic breakdown of Plato and his dialogues, and insight to a forefather of modern philosophy in thr West, full of many great lessons and insights. Absolutely worth the listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!