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The first edition of Plato’s Shadow came out 14 years ago, so it was time for a rewrite and refresh.

Plato’s Shadow contains summaries of all of Plato’s dialogues in their approximate order of composition, enabling you to trace the evolution of Plato’s thought (and of his portrayal of Socrates). Along with Aristotle’s Universe, it was one of the books that served as groundwork for The Gang of Three.

In The Gang Three, I outline and comment on five key dialogues: Meno, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Republic, and Theaetetus. But the interested reader might also want to delve into the Laches, Gorgias, Cratylus, Symposium, Parmenides… which is why I released this new edition as an appendix to the Ancient Wisdom series.

Unlike the other books in the series, Plato’s Shadow is aimed more at students and academics than at the general reader. As this group is less apt to judge a book by its cover, I took the risk of designing the cover myself! The real challenge was not the front cover as such, but getting all the measurements right and getting everything to match the other covers in the series.

When I began self-publishing in 2008, I worked with a typesetter, a proofreader, a designer, a printer, a warehouse, shippers, importers, and, of course, bookshops. But in the intervening time, the world has changed so much, and technology has advanced so much, that I no longer need any of these people.

I do worry that, soon, even I won’t be needed.

I hope you’re having a lovely summer, full of flowers, wine, and watermelons. And, of course, books.

Browse the Ancient Wisdom series

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I’m delighted to tell you that my new book, How to Think Like Plato and Speak Like Cicero, is now out in ebook, paperback, and hardback.

Those first readers and reviews will be critical to the long term success of the book, so I hope you’ll give it a look.

Now let me tell you what’s in it for you….

Every fool can think and speak, or so they think, but you’ll be far ahead by taking a few tips from the greatest minds that ever lived.

How to Think Like Plato and Speak Like Cicero may look like two books in one, one on thinking and another on speaking. It is, in fact, a little more than that, since it also looks at the close but fraught relationship between these two profoundly, pre-eminently human activities.

Thinking, however brilliant it may be, is of little use unless it can be communicated to others in such a way that they will be carried by it. Compared to reason, rhetoric may be cheap and manipulative. But it is a necessary evil if we are to achieve worthwhile aims in the world, or simply counter the destructive tendencies of the modern-day sophists.

Although he had scant regard for sophists and other self-interested bamboozlers, Plato did concede that truth is more persuasive when allied with rhetoric, and that dialectic and rhetoric ought to go hand in hand, since ‘he who would deceive others, and not be deceived, must exactly know the real likenesses and differences of things.’

Do you want to have all the best arguments? Do you want others to buy into them? Do you want to make an even greater impact and difference? … In which case, start reading.

Early editorial reviews have been uniformly positive. Here are some snippets:

A brilliant synthesis of classical philosophy and rhetoric that is urgently needed in this age of misinformation. —KC Finn, USA Today best-selling author

Whether you’re a novice or someone already knee-deep in debate, this is a guide for everyone. Very highly recommended. —Jamie Michele, award-winning author

A surprisingly engaging and relevant look at the wisdom of the ancients. —CR Hurst, author and teacher of writing

BUY NOW

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Antiquity’s best arguments for philosophy.

According to the historian Suetonius, the emperor Augustus wrote an invitation (or exhortation) to philosophy. If this is true, it would have been inspired by Cicero’s famous Hortensius, which was, in turn, informed by Aristotle’s Protrepticus. Tragically, all three protreptics have been lost, except for fragments of the Hortensius and Protrepticus—depriving us of antiquity’s most popular, and improving, genre of philosophy.

This short, readable book is an imaginative reconstruction of the first Roman emperor’s invitation to philosophy, based on arguments and anecdotes gleaned from other ancient authors, including Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. It features Augustus in conversation with his two young grandsons (who were also his adopted sons and heirs), Gaius and Lucius, in the forlorn hope that they might one day rise into philosopher-emperors.

At his trial, Socrates declaimed that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what are the arguments behind this slogan, and why should we, today, take up the study of philosophy?

Find out more: http://mybook.to/invitationtophilosophy