Does honesty have validity? Can virtue be taught? In today’s world is it better to be honest or dishonest? What role do integrity and truth play in civil society? Is knowledge about how we feel or what we know? Should we live our lives based on facts, opinions, or cultural norms? How do we know anything? Can we trust our senses? Has social media impacted people’s ability to live decently?

These are not just questions of the 21st century tottering on the abyss of political disorder and ecological catastrophe. They were also among the deepest concerns of Plato in an Athens devastated by years of war, famine, conspiracy, and political upheaval. His works have endured in their entirety for over 2500 years because they continue to have meaning and significance in every generation. Not only have his ideas influenced and shaped Christian theology beginning with Augustine, they have also deeply engaged great minds and philosophers like Kant, Hegel, Neitches, and Whitehead. Ludwig Wittgenstein, who according to the Stanford Philosophical encyclopedia was perhaps the most significant and most controversial philosopher of the 20th Century, and yet his written work contains more quotations from Plato than from any other philosopher. If you would like to learn more about the man, and his times, read and discuss his works, and grow in understanding together, this is your opportunity.

There are three advantages to reading Plato: 1) his writing is often written in drama- YES, they are called Dialogues because most of them are almost like plays set in conversations; 2) He wrote so that people might read and discuss together; and 3) The works have endured because people from every walk of life have engaged with them through the centuries; i.e., you need not be a philosophy major to understand what he is communicating. Is it your turn to engage Plato in the company of your fellow Athenæum members? Please join us as we meet in true ¨Platonic¨ fashion to learn and grow in knowledge and wisdom from one of the most influential and engaging minds to have walked on earth.

We will spend the first 10-15 minutes discussing the biographical chapters we have read in Plato of Athens. Then for the remainder of our session, we will do our ¨Deep-Dive¨ which will consist in examining Plato’s text in light of a) what we have read of his biography, b) Taylor´s Commentary, and c) our own lived experiences, so that together through dialogue we may first come to see the various levels of meaning present in Plato’s works, and secondly use them as a lens for introspection and interpretation of our times.

This reading group will do an in-depth study of Plato utilizing three texts:

1. Plato of Athens: A Life in Philosophy by Robin Waterfield

2. Plato: The Man and His Work by A. E. Taylor. We will NOT read this book in its entirety.

3. The Dialogues of Plato – We will ONLY read the dialogues listed in the reading syllabus. The individual Dialogues can frequently be found online, purchased in individual or group copies (Penguin is pretty good at this). Just be aware that we will ONLY read the dialogues listed and no others.

With that in mind, below are suggested texts:

a. Plato: Complete Works by Plato (Author), John M. Cooper (Editor), D. S. Hutchinson (Editor)

b. The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Including the Letters (Bollingen Series LXXI) by Plato (Author), Edith Hamilton (Editor), Huntington Cairns (Editor), Lane Cooper (Translator)

c. The Dialogues of Plato, in 5 vols (Jowett ed.) it is the most complete and comprehensive online text.

d. Project Gutenberg

Please note: If you are ever going to refer to a section of the text in our gathering, please ensure that whatever text you are using, that it has the STEPHANUS system (number and letter) so that regardless of whatever book you are using we may all easily access the section.

This reading group meets on the fourth Sunday afternoon of the month in the Athenæum’s Bound, from 2-3:30pm. Please note: there is no November meeting, the December session will meet on the second Sunday, and the May session will meet on the third Sunday.

Sun, September 24
Text 1 (Waterfield) | Introduction xxi & Chapter 1: Growing up in Wartime Athens
Text 2 (Taylor) | Chapter I: The Life of Plato & Chapter X: Protagoras
Text 3 (Dialogues) | Letter 7 & Protagoras

Sun, October 22
Text 1 (Waterfield) | The Sources xxvii & Chapter 2: The Intellectual Environment
Text 2 (Taylor) | Chapter II: The Platonic Writings & Chapter VI: Gorgias pp103-129
Text 3 (Dialogues) | Gorgias

No meeting in November

Sun, December 10 (note this is the second Sunday)
Text 1 (Waterfield) | Chapter 3: From Politics to Philosophy
Text 2 (Taylor) | Chapter XI: Republic
Text 3 (Dialogues) | Republic

Sun, January 28
Text 1 (Waterfield) | Chapter 4: Writing & Research
Text 2 (Taylor) | Chapter VIII: Phaedo
Text 3 (Dialogues) | Phaedo

Sun, February 25
Text 1 (Waterfield) | Chapter 5: The Academy
Text 2 (Taylor) | Chapter IX: Symposium
Text 3 (Dialogues) | Symposium

Sun, March 24
Text 1 (Waterfield) | Chapter 6: Middle Dialogues
Text 2 (Taylor) | Chapter XII: Phaedrus
Text 3 (Dialogues) | Phaedrus

Sun, April 28
Text 1 (Waterfield) | Chapter 7: Practicing politics in Syracuse
Text 2 (Taylor) | Chapter XV: Sophistes – Politicus
Text 3 (Dialogues) | Sophist & Politicus / Statesman

Sun, May 19 (note this is the third Sunday)
Text 1 (Waterfield) | Chapter 8: Last Years
Text 2 (Taylor) | Chapter XVI: Philebus
Text 3 (Dialogues) | Philebus

Leonard Cambra (Lenny) has been a Foreign Language teacher for over 30 years and is currently Foreign Language Department chair at Woonsocket High School. He loves philosophy, history, and the humanities in general. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Letters from St. John’s Seminary College; master degrees in Religious Studies, Education, and Spanish from Providence and Rhode Island College, respectively); and a doctoral degree from Virginia Episcopal Seminary. This will be his third time as a reading group facilitator.