Plato: A Very Short Introduction

A shorter very short introduction, with some glaring flaws and questionable uses of limited page count. First off the book makes it clear getting at Plato's thoughts is difficult because there's no treatise of positive argumentation that establish them. That hasn't stopped people from trying.

Trying to separate Socratic thought from Platonic thought is a problem with long history as well, with an ongoing debate on where to draw the line between dialogues representing Socrates, versus the ones where Plato is (potentially) smuggling in his own thinking. This is not covered in depth.

One of seven chapters is devoted to gender issues, which is very much of this era, but could have been better spent.

A good overview of Plato's works, stressing that Plato was trying to inculcate a method or approach rather than to establish dogmas and thus we shouldn't let the inconsistencies between one dialogue and another bother us too much.

A glimpse of Plato's life and thought is exposed by Julia Annas with clarity and in a readable way. The philosopher early life, his background and his contemporaries in the philosophical endeavor give the reader some insights in order to interpret Plato's works. Some of the understandings advanced by the author are disputed but in no way misleading. Plato's main concepts and ideas are refered in a compreensible way. The reader with special interest in Plato's philosophy will profit by this reading. As usual in the Very Short Introduction series, one must not have previous expertise in the field for the purpose of enjoying the ride in Plato's philosophy.

Idetë vezulluese dhe shembujt e bukur që ofron Julia Annas në këtë libër, të udhëzojë mirë për të mbartur qartësisht, jo vetëm atë që është e pranishme në tëkstet dhe mendimin filozofik të Platonit (madhështinë, sfidën lojcakërinë), por mënyrën se si janë lexuar historikisht dialogët e tij, mbi të gjitha, arsyen pse Platoni mbetet edhe sot materie për lexuesin modern

I learned some mildly interesting things, but overall the book did not excite me.