QUESTION: Why does Plato’s Laches end in aporia (perplexity)?
Recommended readings:
-Early Socratic Dialogue (MUST BE REFERENCED)
-D.J. Melling, Understanding Plato
-W.K.C. Guthrie, History of Greek Philosophy Vol. IV, pp. 124ff.
-R. Robinson, Plato’s Earlier Dialectic Chs. II and V
Both chapters are reprinted – as chapters 4 and 6 – in The Philosophy of Socrates, ed. G. Vlastos
-M.J. O’Brien, ‘The Unity of the Laches’, Yale Classical Studies 18 (1963)
pp.131-47. 871 YAL (also available in Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy, ed. G.P. Anton and J.L. Kustas, pp. 303-15)
-O’Brien’s views can also be found in his book, The Socratic Paradoxes and theGreek Mind, pp.110-17
-G. Santas, ‘Socrates at Work on Virtue and Knowledge in Plato’s Laches’ in
The Philosophy of Socrates, ed. Vlastos, pp.177-208
C. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue Ch. 6
A. Hobbs, Plato and the Hero: Courage, Manliness and the Impersonal Good Ch. 3