First Alcibiades
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The First Alcibiades, also referred to as Alcibiades Major[1] and abbreviated as Alcibiades I (Greek: Ἀλκιβιάδης αʹ), is a dialogue ascribed to Plato, depicting Socrates in conversation with Alcibiades.
Dramatis personae
- Socrates
- Alcibiades
Content
In the preface Alcibiades is described as an ambitious young man who is eager to enter public life. He is extremely proud of his good looks, noble birth, many friends, possessions and his connection to
The first topic they enter is the essence of politics – war and peace. Socrates claims that people should fight on just grounds, but he doubts that Alcibiades has any knowledge about justice. Prodded by Socrates’ questioning, Alcibiades admits that he has never learned the nature of justice from a master nor has discovered it by himself.
Alcibiades suggests that politics is not about justice but expediency and the two principles could be opposed. Socrates persuades him that he is mistaken, and there is no expediency without justice. The humiliated youth concedes that he knows nothing about politics.
Later Alcibiades says that he is not concerned about his ignorance because all the other Athenian politicians are ignorant. Socrates reminds him that his true rivals are the
After this interlude the dialogue proceeds with further questioning about the rules of society. Socrates points to the many contradictions in Alcibiades’ thoughts. Later they agree that man has to follow the advice of the famous
In the last sentence Socrates expresses his hope that Alcibiades will persist, but he has fears because the power of the state "may be too much" for both of them.
Authenticity
In antiquity Alcibiades I was regarded as the best text to introduce one to
Dating
Traditionally, the First Alcibiades has been considered an early dialogue. Gerard Ledger's
A later dating has also been defended. Nicholas Denyer suggests that it was written in the 350s BC, when Plato, back in Athens, could reflect on the similarities between
A compromise solution to the difficult issues of dating attending the linguistic features of First Alcibiades has also been sought in the hypothesis that the first two-thirds of the dialogue was written by some other member of the Platonic Academy, whose efforts were completed by Plato himself in his late-middle period.[9]
R.S. Bluck, although unimpressed by previous arguments against the dialogue's authenticity, tentatively suggests a date after the end of Plato's life, approximately 343/2 BC, based especially on "a striking parallelism between the Alcibiades and early works of Aristotle, as well as certain other compositions that probably belong to the same period as the latter."[10]
References
- ^ "Socrates and Alcibiades: The Alcibiades Major". Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Denyer (2001): 15.
- ^ Young (1998): 35-36.
- ^ Denyer (2001): 14-26.
- JSTOR 23468631.
- ^ Young (1998)
- ^ Denyer (2001): 11-14. Cf. 20-24
- ^ Denyer (2001): 23 n. 19
- ^ Pamela M. Clark, "The Greater Alcibiades," Classical Quarterly N.S. 5 (1955), pp. 231-240
- ^ R.S. Bluck, "The Origin of the Greater Alcibiades," Classical Quarterly N.S. 3 (1953), pp. 46-52
Bibliography
- Denyer, Nicholas, "introduction", in Plato, Alcibiades, Nicholas Denyer (ed.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001): 1-26.
- Foucault, Michel, The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1981–1982 (New York: Picador, 2005).
- Young, Charles M., "Plato and Computer Dating", in Nicholas D. Smith (ed.), Plato: Critical Assessments volume 1: General Issues of Interpretation (London: Routledge, 1998): 29-49.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/38px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png)
- First Alcibiades, in a collection of Plato's Dialogues at Standard Ebooks
- Greek text: Greek Wikisource, HODOI (with French translation and concordance)
- First Alcibiades, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Project Gutenberg)
- Alcibiade de Platon, French adaptation directed by Frédéric Laville (2014).
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