Abstract

Plato's Protagoras casts the leading sophist of the 5th century BCE, Protagoras, against the author's paradigmatic philosopher, Socrates. In this paper I focus on what is arguably the guiding methodological issue of the dialogue: finding agreement upon impartial, common standards for resolving disagreements over abstract questions. In terms of this conference's theme, Protagoras dramatizes a search for common ground between figures who fundamentally disagree over how to locate that ground.