Gregory Vlastos (; el, Γρηγόριος Βλαστός; July 27, 1907 – October 12, 1991) was a preeminent scholar of

ancient philosophy This page lists some links to ancient philosophy, namely philosophical thought extending as far as early post-classical history (). Overview Genuine philosophical thought, depending upon original individual insights, arose in many cultures ...

, and author of many works on Plato and Socrates. He transformed the analysis of classical philosophy by applying techniques of modern

analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy is a branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United Sta ...

to restate and evaluate the views of Socrates and Plato.

Life and works

Vlastos was born in Istanbul, to a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

mother and a Greek father, where he received a Bachelor of Arts from Robert College before moving to Harvard University where he received a PhD in 1931. After teaching for several years at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, he moved to

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teac ...

in 1948. He was Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University between 1955 and 1976, and then Mills Professor of Philosophy at University of California, Berkeley until 1987. He received a

MacArthur Foundation Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...

in 1990. He was twice awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, was a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, a corresponding fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

, and a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

.An ''In memoriam'' essay
In 1988 he gave the British Academy's Master-Mind Lecture. Vlastos died in 1991, before finishing a new compilation of essays on Socratic philosophy. He is credited with bringing about a renaissance of interest in Plato among philosophers throughout the world. Many of Vlastos' students have become important scholars of ancient philosophy, including Terence Irwin, Richard Kraut,

Paul Woodruff Paul Woodruff (born 1943) is a classicist, professor of philosophy, and dean at The University of Texas at Austin, where he once chaired the department of philosophy and has more recently held the Hayden Head Regents Chair as director of Plan II H ...

, and

Alexander Nehamas Alexander Nehamas ( el, Αλέξανδρος Νεχαμάς; born 22 March 1946) is a Greek-born American philosopher. He is a professor of philosophy and comparative literature and the Edmund N. Carpenter II Class of 1943 Professor in the Huma ...

Theory of Socratic philosophy

In his work ''The Philosophy of Socrates: a Collection of Critical Essays'' (UNDP 1971), Vlastos advanced the idea "that one can identify in certain Platonic dialogues a philosophical method and a collection of philosophical theses which may properly be attributed to Socrates." He suggested a plausible modern analytic framework for Socratic philosophy as a pursuit distinct from Platonic philosophy. The dialogues of Plato’s Socratic period, called "

elenctic The Socratic method (also known as method of Elenchus, elenctic method, or Socratic debate) is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw o ...

dialogues" for Socrates’s preferred method of questioning, are ''Apology'', ''Charmides'', ''Crito'', '' Euthyphro'', ''Gorgias'', '' Hippias Minor'', ''Ion'', ''Laches'', ''Protagoras'' and book 1 of the ''Republic''. The idea remains controversialAristotle, ''Metaphysics'', 1.98

/ref> John_M._Cooper_(philosopher), Cooper, John M.; Hutchinson, D.S., eds. (1997): "Introduction", pp.xv-xvi,
Plato: Complete Works
/ref> and those who agree with his position are referred to as Vlastosians.

Works

* ''Christian Faith and Democracy'', Association Press, 1939 * ''Platonic Studies'', Princeton University Press, 1973,

* ''Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher'', Cornell University Press, 1991, * Socratic Studies, Cambridge University Press, 1994,
1995 pbk reprint
* ''Studies in Greek Philosophy Volume I: the Presocratics'', Princeton University Press, 1995, * ''Studies in Greek Philosophy; Volume II: Socrates, Plato, and Their Tradition'', Princeton University Press, 1995,
''Plato's Universe''
Parmenides Publishing, 2005,

Edited

* ''Towards the Christian Revolution'' - with R.B.Y. Scott, Willett, Clark & Company, 1936. * ''Plato, a Collection of Critical Essays'': ''I, Metaphysics and Epistemology''; ''II, Ethics, Politics, and Philosophy of Art and Religion''. Anchor Books / Doubleday and Company, 1971 * ''Philosophy of Socrates: a Collection of Critical Essays'' (Modern Studies in Philosophy), University of Notre Dame Press, 1980,

References

External links