Plato dictionary

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dimitri123
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Plato dictionary

Post by dimitri123 »

Does anyone know where I can find a dictionary specific for Plato? I know there is one by Ast but I cant locate one.
Thanks
Dimitri

mwh
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Re: Plato dictionary

Post by mwh »

Ast’s Lexicon Platonicum is what you're after. It's old but not superseded and never will be. You need Latin to make full use of it. You can find it on Google Books.

dimitri123
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Re: Plato dictionary

Post by dimitri123 »

Thank you.

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jeidsath
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Re: Plato dictionary

Post by jeidsath »

Here's a thread with a link to the history of the failed Oxford Plato Lexicon:

viewtopic.php?t=68643

The last part of Whitaker's article (linked there) discusses some of what came out in the 20th century. Various concordances, but nothing like what was planned for the OPL.
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

cb
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Re: Plato dictionary

Post by cb »

Hi, I have a relatively recent dictionary for Plato by Pradeau and Brisson (2007), in French: https://www.editions-ellipses.fr/dictio ... -6188.html

However, (1) it only covers a limited set of words, and (2) nothing (in my view) can replace working through the commentaries on Plato’s dialogues: for words that do not have a specific philosophical sense, the standard dictionaries are enough; for those that do have a specific philosophical sense, no dictionary will be enough.

I question some of the recent translations of Plato, and so these cannot be taken as a guide either. For instance, Crito 49c7–8: Τὸ γάρ που κακῶς ποιεῖν ἀνθρώπους τοῦ ἀδικεῖν οὐδὲν διαφέρει has been translated as: ‘Doing harm to people is no different from wrongdoing’. If you work through the commentaries, however, you’ll see that there are issues with interpreting κακός-based words in Plato as denoting negative consequences in this way (such as ‘harm’). One can treat someone badly without harming them. Woozley for instance says that ‘actual infliction of harm or damage (of whatever kind) is not necessary to treating badly, nor to κακῶς ποιεῖν in Greek’ (1979 p. 19). Stokes says that the argument here ‘does not assimilate harming (of whatever sort) to injustice; it merely makes use of the common or garden equation of unjust behaviour to somebody with treating them wickedly’ (2005 p. 104).

I’d therefore recommend the tried and tested approach of LSJ plus commentaries (i.e. books and articles) for meanings of words in Plato.

PS I haven’t been on this site for a while, as I’ve been deep in a Plato-based personal project, from which I have now resurfaced: apologies, and I'm looking forward to engaging on here again.

Cheers, Chad

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