Focus Philosophical Library

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  1. Apologies

    Plato & Xenophon
    Translated, with Introduction and Glossary, by Mark Kremer

    "Kremer's is an attractive text because of its combination of simplicity and strong delivery, and this is true regarding his translation and his interpretive essay alike. He has striven for a scrupulous accuracy in his translation, and he has achieved this without sacrificing readability or neglecting the distinctive tone of Plato and Xenophon."
         —Norma Thompson, Yale University

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  2. Athenian Funeral Orations

    Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by Judson Herrman

    This volume collects all of the surviving state funeral orations from Athens, including Thucydides, Gorgias, Lysias, Plato Menexenus, Demosthenes, and Hyperides. To stimulate student discussion and comparison, Lincoln's address at Gettysburg is included in an appendix. Translations are in English, including introduction and notes, as well as literary and historical commentary.

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  3. De Anima (Shiffman Edition)

    Aristotle
    Translated, with Introduction and Notes, Mark Shiffman

    "Shiffman's fidelity both to Aristotle's text and to opening the complex thought contained therein to the contemporary reader is evident throughout this translation. It neither attempts to resolve difficulty nor drown the reader in obscurity; instead, it invites the reader to puzzle through this magnificent and difficult text herself. The wonderful introduction supplies any number of tools to do so and is a model of the rigorous and restrained articulation of essential themes and contemporary resonances. The glossary contains an indispensable and illuminating discussion of terms. Readable and thought-provoking, this translation is particularly well-suited for the classroom. Students at all levels will benefit from its lucidity and provocation to thought." —Sara Brill, Fairfield University

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  4. Discourse on Method (Kennington Edition)

    René Descartes
    Translated by Richard Kennington; Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Pamela Kraus and Frank Hunt

    This Focus Philosophical Library edition includes a new translation of Descartes' seminal discourse, with an original essay by Richard Kennington. This text is designed to provide the student with a close translation, notes, and a glossary of key terms, facilitating access to ideas as they originally were presented and helping to make the translator's work transparent. 

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  5. Empire and the Ends of Politics

    Plato
    Translated, with Introduction and Glossary, by Susan Collins and Devin Stauffer

    This text brings together for the first time two complete key works from classical antiquity on the politics of Athens: Plato's Menexenus and Pericles' Funeral Oration (from Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian War).

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  6. Euthydemus (McBrayer & Nichols Edition)

    Plato
    Translated by Gregory A. McBrayer and Mary P. Nichols; with an Interpretive Essay by Mary P. Nichols and Denise Schaeffer; Introduction by Denise Schaeffer

    English translation of Plato's dialogue of Socrates with two prominent Sophists, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, and their conflicting philosophical views, in which Plato satirizes the logical fallacies of the Sophists. With notes, introduction, interpretive essay, and a glossary of important words.

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  7. Four Island Utopias

    Diskin Clay and Andrea Purvis

    Includes Plato's Atlantis, Euhemeros of Messene's Sacred Inscription, Iamboulos's Island of the Sun, and Bacon's New Atlantis, with a supplement of Utopian PrototypesDevelopments and Variations

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  8. Gorgias (Arieti & Barrus Edition)

    Plato
    Translated, with Introductory Essay and Notes, by James A. Arieti and Roger M. Barrus

    "Arieti and Barrus have provided us with a fine contribution to the literature on Plato's Gorgias. This text includes a literal translation of the Gorgias with a helpful introductory essay, and copious notes. It includes a priceless appendix of the only literal translations available today of several key speeches from Thucydides, as well as a valuable glossary and appendices on the rules of dialectic that may be derived from the arguments of the Gorgias, and on Plato's use of the terms mythos and logos, with which not all scholars may agree, but which I think all should find of interest."
         —Michael Palmer, University of Maine

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  9. Liberty, Equality & Modern Constitutionalism, Volume One

    George Anastaplo

    Volume 1 of two readers containing essential important works on constitutional liberty and the foundations of modern western political theory. This first volume contains the complete Apology of Socrates. Learn More
  10. Liberty, Equality & Modern Constitutionalism, Volume Two

    George Anastaplo

    Volume 2 of two readers containing essential important works on constitutional liberty and the foundations of modern western political theory.

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  11. Meno (Anastaplo & Berns Edition)

    Plato
    Translated, with Annotations, by George Anastaplo and Lawrence Berns

    "This new translation of the Meno by Anastaplo and Berns has several distinctive features that make it useful for teaching and studying the dialogue. Generally achieving a balance between clarity and faithfulness, it includes valuable annotation, two appendices . . . and an innovative division of the text through the provision of numbers for each of it's speeches. . . . The overall result is a text that would give a reader unschooled in Greek a fairly reliable sense of the flow of ideas in the original."
         —William A. Welton, Loyola College, in Review of Metaphysics

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  12. Nicomachean Ethics (Sachs Edition)

    Aristotle
    Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by Joe Sachs

    "Sachs's translations of Aristotle are truly exemplary. They combine a rare sensitivity to Aristotle's use of the Greek language with an English style that is straightforward and imaginative. But what makes Sachs's translations even more noteworthy is their attunement born of profound awareness of the untranslatability of this thought into modern philosophical concepts. For anyone seriously interested in Aristotle's philosophy, Sachs's translations are indispensable." —Burt Hopkins, Seattle University

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  13. On the Nature of Things (Englert Edition)

    Lucretius
    Translated by Walter Englert

    "Englert's translation of the poem is indeed accurate and readable. He knows the poem as thoroughly as he knows the scholarship that bears on it . . . an admirable translation, admirably supported by scholarly tools."
         —W.R. Johnson, University of Chicago

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  14. Parmenides (Whitaker Edition)

    Plato
    Translated, with Introduction, by Albert Keith Whitaker

    "Keith Whitaker's insightful introduction to this notoriously daunting text is valuable for its clarity and sobriety. The lucid interpretation will be of interest to those versed in the text and will be of great help to any who encounter the dialogue for the first time. The engaging translation humanizes the discourse without compromising its precision-a notable achievement that will earn the gratitude of readers."
         —Joseph Cropsey, University of Chicago

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  15. Phaedo (Brann, Kalkavage, & Salem Edition)

    Plato
    Translated, with Introduction and Glossary, by Eva Brann, Peter Kalkavage, and Eric Salem

    "This marvelously conceived new translation of Plato's most important dialogue will set the standard for classroom use for many years to come. . . . The authors' imaginative new interpretation will inspire students and generate scholarly controversy-and is thus certain to accomplish what it suggests is the true aim of Socratic inquiry: the weaving, unweaving, and perpetual re-weaving of the Logos."
         —Dr. George R. Lucas, Jr., Professor of Philosophy, US Naval Academy, Annapolis

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  16. Phaedrus (Scully Edition)

    Plato
    Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by Stephen Scully

    "This is a fine translation, both fluent and accurate. It captures the range of tonalities of the original in elegant English that is neither stiffly formal nor cheaply colloquial. . . . The supplementary matter is appropriate and useful. The introduction is crisp and clear, the interpretive essay illuminating. . . . Scully has done a sound and serious job of translating and annotating for the general reader. Above all, his translation is excellent in respect to style and clarity: really a pleasure to read."
         —David Konstan, Brown University

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  17. Plato: Gorgias & Aristotle: Rhetoric

    Plato & Aristotle
    Translated, with Introduction, by Joe Sachs

    By pairing translations of Gorgias and Rhetoric, along with an outstanding introductory essay, Joe Sachs demonstrates Aristotles response to Plato. If in the Gorgias Plato probes the question of what is problematic in rhetoric, in Rhetoric, Aristotle continues the thread by looking at what makes rhetoric useful. By juxtaposing the two texts, an interesting "conversation" is illuminated—one which students of philosophy and rhetoric will find key in their analytical pursuits.

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  18. Poetics (Sachs Edition)

    Aristotle
    Translated, with Introduction and Notes, Joe Sachs

    "I find the Introduction extremely convincing, lucid, learned, fair to past scholarship, and truly illuminating about the meaning of tragedy in general and about the very specific acceptions of hamartiakatharsis, ekplêxis, and thauma, in the context of an appropriate understanding of the Poetics. Another remarkable feature is the dexterity and ease with which it draws on all the relevant parts of the Aristotelian corpus to shed light on troublesome textual passages in the Poetics. Finally, the style of the Introduction is straightforward, free of unnecessary jargon, direct, and economical, the best interpretation of the Poetics I ever read." —Sabetai Unguru, Tel Aviv University

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  19. Politics (Sachs Edition)

    Aristotle
    Translation and Glossary by Joe Sachs
    Introduction by Lijun Gu

    “Joe Sachs has an extraordinary ability to render ancient Greek into English sentences that are so clear and direct that they help readers to look past Aristotle's technical terminology and reflect on the philosophical issues in the text. For beginning students Sachs's translations are an ideal vehicle through which to engage Aristotle's philosophy. For those of us who are more advanced, they are sufficiently different from the traditional translations to open fresh ways of thinking about the texts. Sachs does a fine job with the Politics. The translation is very readable and accurate, and the notes and glossary are insightful. The introductory essay by Lijun Gu valuably emphasizes the importance of book IV."
    —Edward Halper, University of Georgia

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  20. Republic (Sachs Edition)

    Plato
    Translated, with Introduction and Glossary, by Joe Sachs

    "Joe Sachs, known and respected for his excellent translations of Aristotle, deserves great praise for this new translation of Plato's Republic. Based on the latest definitive edition of the Greek text and guided by a sense that Greek in English need not read like an old, foreign tongue, Sachs' translation captures the flow of the conversation in an English that reads smoothly, even when the ideas expressed force one to pause and look again. Fluid, yet accurate, Sachs' translation allows the thoughtful reader deeper entry into this all-important book. The editorial guides and typographical signs to remind the reader of who has joined the argument most recently are all highly helpful and most welcome. I look forward to reading this with students." —Charles E. Butterworth, University of Maryland

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  21. Socrates & Alcibiades: Four Texts

    Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by David M. Johnson

    Socrates and Alcibiades: Four Texts gathers together translations our four most important sources for the relationship between Socrates and the most controversial man of his day, the gifted and scandalous Alcibiades. In addition to Alcibiades’ famous speech from Plato’s Symposium, this text includes two dialogues, the Alcibiades I and Alcibiades II, attributed to Plato in antiquity but unjustly neglected today, and the complete fragments of the dialogue Alcibiades by Plato’s contemporary, Aeschines of Sphettus. These works are essential reading for anyone interested in Socrates’ improbable love affair with Athens’ most desirable youth, his attempt to woo Alcibiades from his ultimately disastrous worldly ambitions to the philosophical life, and the reasons for Socrates’ failure, which played a large role in his conviction by an Athenian court on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth.

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  22. Socrates and the Sophists

    Plato
    Translated, with Introductory Essay, by Joe Sachs

    This is an English translation of four of Plato’s dialogues (ProtagorasEuthydemusHippias Major, and Cratylus) that explores the topic of sophistry and philosophy, a key concept at the source of Western thought. Includes notes and an introductory essay.

    "Perhaps more than any other dialogue, the Cratylus has been in need of retranslation. Yet because it is a dialogue about words that is also replete with plays on words, with pretended etymologies, and perhaps with more comedy than any other dialogue, translating it is a daunting task. There is no one better suited for this task than Joe Sachs. His translations of Greek philosophical classics are widely acclaimed both for their truthfulness to the original Greek text and for their sensitivity to every nuance of the text. Sachs’s translation of the Cratylus is a rare achievement and no doubt will do much to restore to this dialogue its rightful status as one of the major Platonic dialogues." —John Sallis, Boston College

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  23. Sophist (Brann, Kalkavage, & Salem Edition)

    Plato
    Translated, with Introduction and Glossary, by Eva Brann, Peter Kalkavage, and Eric Salem

    This is an English translation of Plato presenting a new conception of the Theory of Forms. Socrates and others discuss the epistemological and metaphysical puzzles of the Parmenides, with aims to define the meaning of the Sophist. The glossary of key terms is a unique addition to Platonic literature by which concepts central to each dialogue are discussed and cross-referenced as to their occurrences throughout the work. In such a way students are encouraged to see beyond the words into concepts.

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  24. Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise

    Baruch Spinoza
    Translated, with a Glossary, Indexes, and Interpretive Essay, by Martin D. Yaffe

    A complete translation in English of this modern text, with substantive apparatus to allow the student and serious reader to grapple in a meaningful way with this seminal text. The text includes ample footnotes, Spinoza's annotations, an interpretative essay, glossary and other indices.

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  25. Statesman (Brann, Kalkavage, & Salem Edition)

    Plato
    Translated, with Glossary, Essay, and Appendices, by Eva Brann, Peter Kalkavage, and Eric Salem

    "This will be the preferred edition of Plato’s Statesman for teachers and students who are serious not only about reading the text in good translation, but also about working through its arguments." —Dustin Gish, College of the Holy Cross

    "Having taught Plato's dialogues in my classes over the past forty-three years to upper level undergraduates, I can especially appreciate the value of this new edition of Plato's Statesman. The three translators have paid very close attention to the amazing fecund versatility of the Greek text, producing a translation that is as accurate and lively as possible and the best currently available for classroom use. The interpretative essay is unique in its highlighting of all of the issues that a thoughtful reader should be led to consider concerning this work. As has been the case with other works by these translators, the glossary leads any Greek-less reader as close as possible to the interconnections of the major words that sustain the flow and eddies of this perennially fascinating work." —Donald Lindenmuth, The Pennsylvania State University

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  26. Symposium (Sharon Edition)

    Plato
    Translated, with Introduction and Glossary, by Avi Sharon

    "The Symposium challenges the translator who is also a poet in its range of styles which is unique among the Platonic dialogues. Not only does the translator have to mimic the distinct style of the narrator, Apollodoros, and the seven symposiasts . . . he has to mind and represent the action in this the most dramatic of the Platonic dialogues. Sharon's translation meets these challenges and is a brilliant recovery of the style and drama of the Symposium. I know of no other translation that is so appropriately various in the styles adopted by and for the speakers or which is so attentive to the drama of this dialogue which celebrates a tragic victory."
         —Diskin Clay, Duke University

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  27. Symposium or Drinking Party

    Plato
    Translated with Introduction, Glossary, Essay and Appendices by Eva Brann, Peter Kalkavage and Eric Salem

    "I seriously believe this will be the finest edition of the Symposium ever to appear in English. May it enlighten many students and be a very valuable addition to current scholarship in this area." —Donald C. Lindenmuth, The Pennsylvania State University

    "Brann, Kalkavage and Salem's translation is literal, but reads naturally in English. . . . Despite the high degree of linguistic accuracy that the authors maintain, they also convey the playful tone of the dialogue: they are alert to the humor and irony that pervade the text and they effectively handle the literary (mostly poetical) passages when they occur. In general, they do not provide restrictive interpretation; rather they open the text up to alternative readings. More importantly, the translation is accompanied by useful notes that either focus on the text itself (e.g. on the etymology and meaning of words) or go beyond it (e.g., they offer additional information about the characters of the dialogue and its intertexts). A well-produced edition, with a logical structure, clear objectives and a reasonable price. It is lucid and accessible and it should be counted among the best English translations of the Symposium." —Chara Kokkiou, University of Crete, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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  28. The Philosophy of Right

    G. W. F. Hegel
    Translated, with Introductory Essay and Glossary, by Alan White

    Designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in philosophy and political science, this edition features a glossary keyed to the primary occurrences of important terms in the text and provides insights into the concepts beyond the translation—an especially useful pedagogical device for students coming to Hegel for the first time. 

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  29. Theaetetus (Sachs Edition)

    Plato
    Translated, with Introductory Essay, by Joe Sachs

    "Sachs's outstanding new translation of Plato's Theaetetus is lucid, readable, and faithful to the original. More than that, it is a translation for the thoughtful reader. Through his striking translations of key terms, Sachs compels the reader to think more deeply about Plato's intent. He shows that Plato's return within the dialogue to the same word or to its cognates is no accident but signals a philosophical trope in Plato's thought. The work's introduction avoids presenting a stock summary of the topics covered or a rehearsal of the failed arguments. Instead, it makes the case for regarding the Theaetetus as Plato's 'missing' work on The Philosopher. Through the 'variety of attempts, errors, new beginnings, and false turns that the dialogue presents,' Sachs argues, Socrates provokes his interlocutors and Plato's readers to strive to cross the boundary between mere opinion and the kind of thinking that is philosophy."
         —Roslyn Weiss, Lehigh University

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  30. Timaeus (Kalkavage, Second Edition)

    Plato
    Translated, with Glossary and Introductory Essay, by Peter Kalkavage

    "Kalkavage’s translation and commentary provide invaluable assistance to students of Plato’s Timaeus. The translation is accurate, but readable. And Kalkavage packs a great deal of relevant historical, musical, and mathematical information into his notes."
         —Catherine Zuckert, Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame

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  31. Two Treatises of Government

    John Locke
    Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Lee Ward

    Designed to serve the needs of students confronting Locke’s political thought for the first time, Lee Ward’s edition offers a faithful text of Two Treatises of Government with modernized spelling and punctuation. Its Editor’s Introduction outlines the main arguments of these works, illustrates the conceptual thread uniting the less frequently read First Treatise with the far more famous Second Treatise, and locates Locke’s work amid the turbulent constitutional battles of 1690s England. Helpful notes at the foot of the page, a Thematic Index, and an up-to-date Bibliography are also provided.

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