John Burnet (classicist)

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John Burnet (December 9, 1863 – May 26, 1928) was a Scottish classicist, educated at the University of Edinburgh and Balliol College, Oxford, receiving his M.A. degree in 1887. He was a Fellow at Merton College, Oxford, a professor of Latin at Edinburgh, and in 1891 became Professor of Greek at the University of St. Andrews. He was a Fellow of the British Academy.

In 1894, he married Mary Farmer, who wrote the Preface for a collection of essays published after his death, Essays and Addresses.

Burnet is best known for his work on Plato, particularly his argument that the depiction of Socrates in all of Plato's dialogues is historically accurate, and that the philosophical views peculiar to Plato himself are to be found only in the so-called late dialogues. Burnet also maintained that Socrates was closely connected to the early Greek philosophical tradition, now generally known as Pre-Socratic philosophy; Burnet believed that Socrates had been in his youth the disciple of Archelaus, a member of the Anaxagorean tradition (Burnet 1924, vi).

Burnet's philological work on Plato is still widely read, and his editions have been considered authoritative for 100 years.

[edit] References

[edit] Major works

Early Greek Philosophy. London and Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, 1892. 4th edition, 1930.
- An online text of the 3rd edition (1920) of Early Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy: Thales to Plato. London, MacMillan, 1920.
Platonism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1928.
Essays and Addresses, 1930, includes a memoir by Godfrey Rathbone Benson.

[edit] Editions edited and annotated by Burnet

The Ethics of Aristotle. London: Methuen, 1900.
Platonis Opera: Recognovit Brevique Adnotatione Critica Instruxit (as Ioannes Burnet). Oxford: Oxford Classical Texts, 1900–1907.
Plato: Phaedo. Oxford: Clarendon, 1911.
Plato: Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, Crito. Oxford: Clarendon, 1924.