Grigoris Vlastos

Gregory Vlastos (; ; July 27, 1907 – October 12, 1991) was a preeminent scholar of ancient philosophy, and author of many works on Plato and Socrates. He transformed the analysis of classical philosophy by applying techniques of modern analytic philosophy to restate and evaluate the views of Socrates and Plato.

Biography Early Life and Education Vlastos was born in Istanbul, to a Scottish mother and a Greek father, Kimon Vlastos (his parents later moved to Brussels, Belgium). His father was associated with the Imperial Ottoman Bank in Instanbul (then Constantinople) before the revolution. In Istanbul his parents belonged to a small sect of Greek Protestants and he received a Presbyterian Church upbringing. After graduating from Istanbul's American-sponsored school, Robert College, in 1925, he enrolled in the Chicago Theological Seminary, where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity in 1929. He was ordained a minister in the Congregational Church, but he never became a pastor. He attended graduate school in philosophy at Harvard University where he received a PhD in 1931. His dissertation, "God as a Metaphysical Concept," was supervised by Alfred North Whitehead. His teachers included Whitehead and Raphael Demos.

Career He accepted a position at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 1931. While he was at Queen's he wrote two books and edited a third book, all concerning Christianity. In 1938 he had completed a manuscript of 30,000 words on 'Religion and the State in Plato', which he never published. He cofounded the Princeton Program in Classical Philosophy with Whitney J. Oates. He also helped created the National Humanities Center and the Council for Philosophical Studies. He participated in negotiations leading to the creation of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Upon his retirement from Princeton in 1976, he taught as Mills Professor of Philosophy at University of California, Berkeley until 1987. For one year he taught at the University of Cambridge. He received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1990. He was twice awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a corresponding fellow of the British Academy, and a member of the American Philosophical Society. In 1988 he gave the British Academy's Master-Mind Lecture. His book on Socrates, "Socrates–Ironist and Moral Philosopher" was published in June 1991, months before he passed away. At the time of his death, he was finishing a new compilation of essays on Socratic philosophy, "Socratic Studies," which was published posthumously in 1994, edited by Myles Burnyeat.

Personal Life He married Vernon Abbott Ladd ('Val' to family and friends) on December 16, 1932. She made her debut in 1927 when she became a member of the Vincent Club and the Junior League. She graduated from Vassar College in 1930 and won a fellowship to study the philosophy of religion at the University of Chicago and Radcliffe College. At their wedding, Vlastos's best man was Morris B. Storer, instructor in philosophy at Dartmouth College. According to the New York Times, for their honeymoon the bridal couple "will tour the mountains by motor and will also attend the conference in philosophy at Bryn Mawr, to which they have been invited." 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 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 controversial and those who agree with his position are referred to as Vlastosians. 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,

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 The Philosophy of Socrates: a Collection of Critical Essays, Anchor, 1971. New ed., (Modern Studies in Philosophy), University of Notre Dame Press, 1980,