Eleanor Phillips

This book appears in the International Library of Psychology, Philosophy and Scientific Method, along with the Platonic studies of Cornford, but it can hardly satisfy the public that reads those. There are chapters on various aspects of Plato’s thought such as Ethics, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Education, and included in the last is the perennial topic of Plato’s relation to Socrates, so that most subjects of importance are touched on in some way. But the treatment will not satisfy a philosopher or a Hellenist, for it seems everywhere too superficial; there is much in summary, but problems are not properly indicated. Indeed, in spite of its length and inclusiveness, the book still has the feel of journalism, of something addressed to the readers of a literary digest who wish to know what broad line Plato took on various matters of human interest, or at any rate of lectures intended for those who need some philosophy in a rapid course on liberal arts, or on the background of modern literature, or educational theory which has been influenced by Plato. This impression is strengthened by the style, which is deliberately chatty and repetitive, and uses such expressions as ‘the Veritable Above’ and ‘biosocial living’. It is also most misleading to call such a person as Heraclitus a ‘factual scientist’.