What is the Difference in the Various Versions of Plato & Aristotle Available?

I tried to read up on this on other forums but I couldn't quite find the answer. I read some about the difference between Perseus and Loeb, but where does Clarendon fit in? Can anyone compare and contrast all three? Thanks!

Currently, the works of Plato are available in these forms:

The Works of Plato (24 vols) - Loeb Classical Library

The Dialogues of Plato (5 vols) - Clarendon Press

Perseus Classics Collection

Then for Aristotle:

The Select Works of Aristotle (40 vols) - Loeb Classical Library

The Works of Aristotle (12 vols) - Clarendon Press

Perseus Classics Collection

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Comments

Bruce Dunning

The primary difference between Loeb texts and Perseus texts is that Loeb texts are fully tagged and supported by Logos. They also include introductions.

Ken McGuire

The Perseus collection is free and is a great value besides. I am not the biggest expert in this, but from what I have seen, there is decent coverage of Plato, but it is missing some important works of Aristotle, including no Nic. Ethics in English. But the Perseus collection is still rather extensive, and we should all thank Logos for it. But it is automatically generated from the Perseus texts available on the web.

The Loeb editions are often admittedly the source of the Perseus texts. But the Logos editions of these are full Logos editions - designed to have as much linking as possible. In addition they include the introductions...

I unfortunately do not know anything about the Clarendon editions. But on general it is to the good when studying a text written in another language to see multiple translations.

Francis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/626745#Comment_626745

I am not a Plato expert, so I don't have a direct answer. However, by analogy to different editions of Josephus or the DSS, I can suggest this way of finding out to you: check out acclaimed, recent scholarly introductions to Plato: they will, more likely than not, discuss English translations and highlights their comparative merits/qualities. Some of them may even have an annotated bibliography. Some of this you may be able to do via Google Books or Amazon's previews.

Generally, classic works undergo different revisions and are open to critical issues. As a result, there are updated translations and sometimes different approaches to the underlying text and transitional approach. The preface of each of the series probably states also what their edition sought to do. Sometimes, it may not be a different translation but simply the layout, the availability of study questions, etc. Again, the insert leaf and preface should identify the translation the edition is based on.

I found also this tidbit on wikipedia's article on Plato: "The Oxford Classical Texts offers the current standard complete Greek text of Plato's complete works. In five volumes edited by John Burnet, its first edition was published 1900-1907, and it is still available from the publisher, having last been printed in 1993.^[104]^[105] The second edition is still in progress with only the first volume, printed in 1995, and theRepublic, printed in 2003, available. The Cambridge Greek and Latin Texts and Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries series includes Greek editions of the Protagoras,Symposium, Phaedrus, Alcibiades, and Clitophon, with English philological, literary, and, to an extent, philosophical commentary.^[106]^[107] One distinguished edition of the Greek text is E. R. Dodds' of the Gorgias, which includes extensive English commentary.^[108]^[109]

The modern standard complete English edition is the 1997 Hackett Plato, Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper.^[110]^[111] For many of these translations Hackett offers separate volumes which include more by way of commentary, notes, and introductory material. There is also the Clarendon Plato Series by Oxford University Press which offers English translations and thorough philosophical commentary by leading scholars on a few of Plato's works, including John McDowell's version of the Theaetetus.^[112] Cornell University Press has also begun the Agora series of English translations of classical and medieval philosophical texts, including a few of Plato's.^[113]".

Bentley Crawford

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/626780#Comment_626780

Thanks so much for the help friends!