Protagoras :: Philosophy Papers

Protagoras The passage in question begins with a breakdown in the discussion between Socrates and Protagoras because of disagreement about what its ground rules will be and concludes with the discussions restoration. Though formally a mere time out from the main line of argument, this passage in fact contains a fable about politics, addressing the question, How can people of differing abilities and preferences come together to form a community? Since the passage appears in the middle of a converse explicitly concerned with education, the parable extends to education as well. The passage thus provides a springboard for insight into well-nigh essential interconnections between and among philosophy, education, and politics. On the wizard hand, a genuine practitioner of any of the three is ipso facto a engage in the otherwise two at the same time. And on the other hand, the three share an internal structure which is reflexive and transitive at the same time.In the passage in quest ion, the discussion between Socrates and Protagoras has blue down in disagreement about what its ground rules will be. aft(prenominal) some angry saber-rattling from the principals, and some well-meaning intervention from the onlookers, order is restored and the dialogue continues. For all its vivid, memorable banter, the passage is thus apparently no much than a hiatus from the dialogues main line of argument.(1) A commentary may skip over it lightly(2) an anthology may drop off it entirely.(3) However, I claim that the passage is more than mere literary entertainment, and has import beyond the methodology of Socratic dialogue. In this essay I would akin to give a reading of the passage which shows it to be not just now a dispute about philosophical methodology but withal a parable for politics. I will then go on to show that this political parable, placed as it is at the center of a philosophical work in which education is explicitly at issue, suggests some essential inter connections between philosophy, politics, and education.The discussion between Socrates, the dialectician, and Protagoras, the speech-maker, began in a cordial fashion (317e), but by 334d it has broken down entirely. Socratess elenchus has subject some problems in Protagorass position, and Protagoras seems to realize that things go better for him when he makes a speech (as at 320d-328d). When he extricates himself from a tight pinch into which Socrates has backed him by giving a short speech (334a-c) which brings him applause, Socrates realizes that Protagoras does not wish to engage in dialectic.