Plato's moral realism : the discovery of the presuppositions of ethics /

Rist (Catholic Univ. of America), one of the leading scholars in the study of ancient philosophy--especially Plato and the Platonic tradition--offers a mature, wide-ranging account of the development of Plato's ethical system. The book traces Plato's ethical development in a linear fashion from the early to the middle and late dialogues. Whereas the earlier, more closely "Socratic" dialogues focused on the moral character of particular individuals, later dialogues progressively sought to define the virtues themselves, abstracted from particular characters, and then to articulate a metaphysical (and eventually theological) framework for grounding those virtues. Hence the book analyzes the trajectory of Plato's moral inquiry in terms of the well-known Platonic concept of unchanging forms, and then in terms of a divine mind. The Phaedo and Republic receive entire chapters. Other chapters treat multiple related dialogues, and the final chapter suggests the inadequacies of modern, alternative ethical approaches. Specialists may disagree on Rist's relative ordering of the dialogues or on their precise relationships with each other; but the book makes a lucid and perceptive contribution to the study of ancient ethics. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty. A. P. Johnson Lee University