Socrates

“Prior’s Socrates is an outstanding introduction. Written with clarity and grace, it provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of Socrates’ thought and legacy, guided by a judicious reading of Plato’s dialogues, and informed by a wide knowledge of the secondary literature.” Richard Kraut, Northwestern University “Is Socrates, recalcitrant hero of Western philosophy, always the ignorant and barren inquirer? Or rather a fertile voyager toward truth and wisdom? William Prior pursues these questions across the whole range of the philosophical terrain that Socrates explored. This authoritative and wonderfully lucid book offers an ideal general account, for beginner and more advanced reader alike, of this perennially intriguing figure, rewardingly rounded off with sketches of what later thinkers, notably Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche, made of him.” Malcolm Schofield, University of Cambridge