Form and content need to be in harmony for the proper expression of truth – and this is particularly the case when we are speaking about philosophy. This translation of Plato is the result not only of my dissatisfaction with Jowett and others, but more importantly it is due to the unparalleled beauty that I discovered in Schleiermacher’s translation. Those who ‘know’ Ancient Greek may scoff and put on airs all that they like, the reader is simply enjoined to listen in to the text and to form his or her own judgment, which translation is better at capturing the subtle nuances of Plato’s spirit?
There is no other text available in English that contains such a broad and fine selection of dialogues - and this selection is organized and firmly tied to Friedrich Schleiermacher and his interpretation, a translation that stands alone in Germany, a nation well known for producing great works in the field of philosophy. If you know Greek or German, read the ‘original’ or read Schleiermacher, if not – Tallyho!
Phillip Lundberg grew weary of programming computing machines one day and decided to devote a little more time to philosophy—he had already been dabbling a bit with a translation of Plato’s Parmenides. The end result, about five years later, was his first book, Tallyho ~ The Hunt for Virtue: Nine Dialogues by Plato. This translation is an attempt to re-instate Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Plato Interpretation and provide English readers with a book of dialogues that truly introduces them into this convoluted maze of ideas, a maze with a roadmap furnished by Schleiermacher. Lately Mr. Lundberg has been pursuing a better Kafka translation and his latest book, Essential Kafka, has been available since June-07. Mr. Lundberg holds a master’s degree in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research and studied extensively in Germany during his formative years, in particular at the Hegel archives in Bochum. Pictures and contact information can be gleaned from Mr. Lundberg’s website:
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ushaphil
Socr: How now? – do we want that we take a look at some other script, the legitimate sister of this one: how it is that she comes to be and how much better she is and more powerful than the former, so is her constitution, the way she grows?
Phae: And which script might this be that you’d be meaning, and how does she come to be?
Socr: The one that is written within the soul of him, he who learns – and this script is well positioned, that she is able to help herself and well knows to whom she should speak and when it’s better to remain silent.
Phae: You’d be meaning the living and ensouled script of the man who truly knows as opposed to which the written version could rightfully be seen as a shadow image.
Socr: Indeed, even she. But tell me this, would a landsman who understands what he’s about, would he take the seeds for whose tending he is responsible, that others might partake in the fruit that he nurtures, and would he construct a small Adonis garden in the very imminence of the mid-Summer heat, and will he experience joy if already on the eighth day he sees the plants shooting up into the heights? – or shall it be so that he’d only do this out of playfulness and on festive occasions if, then, he does it at all; but these seeds, if he is really to be serious about his business, then he shall sow them in accordance to the prescripts of the art of horticulture and in the proper ground where they belong, and he shall be satisfied if what he has sown reaches its consummation after eight months?
Phae: It is certainly so, o Socrates, the latter would be done in all earnestness but the former only for some other purpose.
Socr: And shall we say that he who possesses knowledge of righteousness, beauty and the good – that he shall proceed with less understanding than this landsman?
Phae: In no way, that couldn’t well be.
