About the Book

  • Reason and Persuasion contains three Plato dialogues - Euthyphro, Meno, Republic Book I - translated by Belle Waring; with extensive commentary and illustrations by John Holbo. It is suitable as an introductory textbook but we hope more advanced students of philosophy and Plato will get something out of it as well. The 4th edition is substantially revised and improved.

    "There is no dearth of textbooks offering an introduction to Plato's thought, but Holbo's stands apart in the scope of its introductory material and its user-friendly style ... The colloquial yet accurate translation by Belle Waring serves to reduce the distance between the student and the world of the dialogues still further ...Holbo's commentaries on these three dialogues serve to situate them both as individual works and also as parts of Plato's overall project of showing the problems of persuasion divorced from reason. Rather than taking a strictly scholarly approach the author has made clear the relevance of these texts for questions even non-philosophers should find worth asking. For instructors seeking an introductory text for first time readers of Plato, Holbo's book is worthy of consideration."
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, review of the 3rd edition

Email the Authors

About the Authors

  • John Holbo is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore.

    Belle Waring received an MA in classics at the University of California, Berkeley.

    They are married and live in Singapore with their two daughters.

Buy The Book

Read The Book Online

  • You can download free PDF's here. You can view the whole book in a nice, online viewer here (Issuu). Issuu has a pretty good iPad app. Very simple, free and no log-in required.

About This Site

  • John Holbo is your webmaster and host. This site will be a clearinghouse for links, resources and things to do with the book. And some discussion! Not sure yet how much time I will be able to devote to upkeep after the initial publication burst. But I do hope I am a good person about that.

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