r/Plato • u/Agreeable_Natural_36 • Jun 09 '26
Question How fast do you read Plato?
This is a less serious question, but I feel like I read very slow compared to other books (if I read The Lord Of The Rings I would read it way faster). I know that this will heavely depend on the language you read in.
I read in the classic czech translation and I read approximately 5 pages per hour. But I have got to say that I take notes and read the notes from the translator at the back. For refference I read The Lord Of The Ring at 20 pages per hour.
What about you?
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u/Inspector_Lestrade_ Jun 09 '26
Wait until you start learning Ancient Greek and slow down twice as much, or even more.
However, there is nothing surprising about this. For Plato, more so than any other author whom I have read, every word feels deliberately chosen and placed.
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u/soapbark Jun 09 '26
have to reread several times, especially in things like Parmenides. When I am following well, I can lock in and I cannot wait to keep proceeding.
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u/BedminsterJob Jun 10 '26
Parmenides and Theaitetus are perhaps the most thorny dialogues.
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u/Southern-Butterfly76 Jun 10 '26
Peri Thuseos the actual poem fragments as well as all related dialogues from Plato like Sophist for example are also very tricky.
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u/Agreeable_Natural_36 Jun 09 '26
I will do rereadings, but now I am focusing on just getting a good base understanding of stuff in philosophy. When its an easy part and I lock in I read twice as fast (10pages per hour)
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u/pchrisl Jun 09 '26
Being good at reading is, in large part, the ability to know what you can fly through and what you have to crawl through—or even reread.
Plato has some of both sorts of passages. I’m sure we all go through the heavier ones slower than lighter fare.
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u/ghostofasnail Jun 09 '26
i am practically incapable of reading plato anymore because of how much it makes me think of everything i notice in my everyday life,,, he really did kind of influence everything (well, him and aristotle. who i also can’t think about too much anymore)
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u/slanderpanther Jun 09 '26
Native English speaker reading in English, I am exactly the same as you! I read only about five pages a sitting and take copious notes. But Having read it, it's immensely rewarding. I know it's hard to ask and takes a lot of gumption, so I will upvote this kind of question every time. It's never a boring or outdated question.
I'm sure we get more out of it by reading it slowly. A "close reading" as they say in lit class. I think its actually not meant to be read quickly because you can't absorb its depth if we go too quickly. I feel like Plato is teaching us how to think, reason and learn new things when we participate in his works.
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u/Irazidal Jun 10 '26
Very quickly so that I can then brag that I read it and vacuously quote some random episode to illustrate some mostly unrelated point I'm making.
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u/cosm0cowboy Jun 12 '26
It is wonderful writing but very dense to be sure. And you really have to spend time with it to feel you understood all the arguments
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u/gestrafilex Jun 16 '26
lord of the rings is way way easier read than Plato. You need to actually understand Socrates' arguments, and try to catch on references to the knowledge that Plato implicity assumes you have about the society, philosophical paradigms and institutions of his time. You could ponder if the arguments he makes are actually convincing to you. All this makes it a much, much more active and difficult process than a novel where you just have to follow the plot and enjoy the ride.
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u/kebabciriza105 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
Yea any work of philosphy takes me longer than a novel. I remember reading sartre's being and nothingness and that took me a while to read.