Kabbalah (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 221 Plato: Phaedo. Translated with notes by David Gallop. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975. Pp. viii + 245. $15.50) This volume is the third in the Clarendon Plato Series, following John McDowell's Theaetetus and J. C. B. Gosling's Philebus. The series is intended primarily for readers without Greek who are interested in the philosophical study of Plato's dialogues. The volume contains a translation of the Phaedo and two sets of notes, the major set consisting of an analysis of the philosophical argumentation in the dialogue, and a small set concerned with linguistic and textual problems. Apart from a number of noted exceptions the translation is based on Burnet's text. The translator has aimed "to render Plato's text as accurately and naturally as possible," sacrificing naturalness to accuracy in places where the two aims conflict and philosophical questions are at stake. He also has attempted "as far as possible to avoid prejudging questions of interpretation in the translation itself." Though no translation lacks interpretation , Gallop's rendering of this popular dialogue will be useful to readers who want a translation which approximates the Greek as closely as possible. To on is translated "that which is"; ta onta, "the things that are" (see pp. 92-93 for discussion). When an interpretative judgment is required Gallop gives the reasons for his choice (though some readers will balk): aitia is translated "reason" in concession to the narrowing of the meaning of "cause" in modern times (pp. 169-170); al~th~s is sometimes translated "true," sometimes "real," according as it applies to logoi or to a "reality" external to them (p. 154); logos is translated in various ways since a uniform rendering is judged to be impossible (pp. 146-147). The notes are devoted predominantly to a painstaking logical analysis of the philosophical arguments presented in the dialogue. Gallop intends to explore the philosophical and interpretative problems without necessarily arriving at a solution for each. Happily, he accompanies his arguments with a great many references to the text of the Phaedo and other dialogues. Recent scholarship is also cited liberally, though no attempt is made at exhaustive coverage. The notes will probably be much used by students of Plato's philosophy. Many readers will be troubled by the near absence of discussion of the artistic composition of the Phaedo. Gallop claims that "thought and action are interfused throughout [the Phaedo ] in the manner typical of Plato's maturity as a philosopher-dramatist" (p. 74), but he says almost nothing in his commentary about the drama of the dialogue. Furthermore, he says very little about the purpose of the dialogue, stating simply that "the work is not an exposition of his [Plato's] doctrines, but a meditation upon the issues it raises, and a stimulus to the reader to explore them for himself" (p. 74). He does not attempt to determine how far the views of the dramatic Socrates represent those of the historical Socrates or those of Plato (pp. 74, 169). The self-imposed limits of Gallop's commentary, set in connection with the aims of the Clarendon Plato Series, express an assumption that there is in the Phaedo a "philosophical content" which can be discussed in isolation from other aspects of the dialogue. One is reminded of the pregnant exclamation mark with which Friedlander responded to the same assumption on the part of Bonitz decades ago (P. Friedlander, Plato, 3rd ed., trans. Meyerhoff , I, 232). W. JOSEPHCUMMINS University of Cincinnati Kabbalah. By Gershom Scholem. (New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1974. Pp. 492. $9.95) Rarely has one scholar so dominated his field as Gershom Scholem dominates the scholarly study of Kabbalah. It is hardly an overstatement to say that he created the field of Kabbalah studies as an academic discipline, and he continues today as its acknowledged master. Thus 222 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Kabbalah is at once both a summary of Scholem's half-century of research and an authoritative statement of what is known and unknown at the present time about the subject. Yet on the very first page Scholem indicates that he cannot tell us exactly what the Kabbalah is, and...