Phaedrus — Plato

p. 64many distinct virtues, are also in an important sense true. It may even seem to some that Protagoras appears to advantage in comparison with Socrates. The views set forth by Socrates are strange, paradoxical, and to many will seem false.

That virtue can not be taught, that the virtues are one and that virtue is the knowledge of the pleasures and pains involved in action, are all statements which are likely to meet with strong denial. Careful study will serve to clear up some of the diffigulties. That virtue can not be taught means with Socrates that virtue can not be brought to a man but must be bom in him.

That all the virtues are one means with him, that all particular forms or manifestations of virtue, such as those we call courage, temperance, etc., spring from a corhmon principle, and are in fact one in idea. The common principle to which all the virtues are reduced is knowledge. Virtue can therefore be taught, — not indeed brought to one from without but awakened in one by proper influences.

The view that virtue is knowledge of the total pleasure and pain involved in action has been most severely criticized. Plato modified this view in his later dialogues. He continued to hold, however, that the purest virtue leads to the greatest happiness in this and the future life.

Taking the dialogue as a whole, one may see that Plato means to show the Sophists at their best and then to show that Socrates was superior to them not simply with their own weapons, but in a far higher sense. The Sophists have views which often appear excellent, but which are self -contradictory and for which in any case they can give no deep and real reason.

Socrates wishes to judge upon the questions in issue from the stand -point of absolute truth as revealed by philosophy. The contrast between the method of the Sophists, and that of Socrates is as significant as that between the doctrines. They put their trust in rhetoric, — in the forms of discourse which charm and persuade. Socrates

INTkODUCTION 65 chooses the less attractive method of cross-examination, with the purpose of revealing the contradictions involved in the fine speeches of his antagonists, and with the purpose of arriving at positive results which are not self-contradictory. While the Protagoras is a brilliant example of the sort of dispute which, without doubt, frequently took place between Socrates and the Sophists, it can not be regarded as Plato's most successful presentation of his own point of view. For the most complete victory of the philosopher over the Sophist, in regard to the whole theory of life, one must look to the Republic, 5

PROTAGORAS

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE.* Socrates, who is the narrator of Protagoras, ) the Dialogue to his Companion. H i ppi as, > Sophists, Hippocrates. Prodicus, ) Alcibiades. Callias, a wealthy Athenian,. Critias. Scene : — ^The House of Callias. Com. Where do you come from, Socrates ? And yet I need hardly ask the question, as I know that you have been in chase of the fair Alcibiades.

I saw him the day be- Steph. fore yesterday; and he had got a beard like a man, — ^^^ and he is a man, as I may tell you in your ear. But I thought that he was still very charming. * Hippocrates (hfp-pfik'ra-tez) : comparatively unknown ; not mentioned elsewhere by Plato. Alcibiades (31"si-bl'a-dez) : a beautiful and wealthy Athenian of great ability, who spent himself in reckless dissipation.

He was in youth an intimate friend of Socrates, who saw his talent and sought, though without success, to win him from vice to virtue. See Symposium, 212 and following ; Apology, note 34. Protagoras (pro-tKg'o-ras) : a celebrated Sophist from Abdera (Sb-de'ra, a city of Thrace on the -^gean) celebrated especially for his skill as a rhetorician. He was the first philosopher who received pay for teaching.

He was very popular and received as much as 100 minae ($1,600 to $1,800) from a pupil. He was more serious in his instruction than most of the other Sophists. Hippias (hTp'pf-as) of Elis (a city of Greece about one hundred and thirty miles west of Athens), was noted for his remarkable memory and general learning. He was boastful and superficial. Two dialogues, attributed to Plato, bear his name.

Prodicus (pr6d'f-cus) of Ceos (se'os, an island in the ^Egean). was a grammarian, rhetorician, and orator. The expression "wiser than Prodicus" became a proverb. Callias (kSllf-as). See Apology, note 9. Critias (krit'i-as) : an accomplished Athenian ; in youth, a disciple of Soor rates« later the chief of the Thirty Tyrants. See Apology, note 34. 67