Abstract

This study attempts to understand Plato's Protagoras as a dramatic whole in which the central theme is the appearance of excellence in a human community. This theme is explored through the comparison of sophistry to philosophy: an exploration to which the encounter between Socrates and Protagoras invites us. The political significance of this comparison is announced in the opening scene as the city falsely judges Socrates' erotic interest in the Athenian youth. The city's evident preference for sophistry presents Socrates with the opportunity to defend indirectly his own interest in Athens through an exhibition of Protagoras' interest in the city. The public appearance of both philosophy and sophistry is shown to be the result of the city's failure to care for the aspirations of youths like Hippocrates. The Protagorean response to that failure, followed by Socrates' response to that response, prompts an investigation of the nature of excellence, and this, in turn, of the excellence portrayed in how and why these two interlocutors give and take speeches the way the do. Yet Protagoras' continued reluctance to pursue this investigation invites a closer look at what sophistry takes goodness to be. With Socratic direction, sophistry's initial reluctance to embrace hedonism eventually gives way to an eager acceptance of a purportedly scientific hedonism appropriate for the many. By thus succumbing to the pleasant solution offered by Socrates, both sophistry and the city betray their intrinsic affinity to each other through a common love of pleasure. The city's preference for sophistry over philosophy is thereby revealed, and Socrates' working out of the implications of hedonism, leading to Protagoras' final refutation, stands as a challenge to his audience, meant to test their ultimate willingness to embrace the excellence implied by sophistry instead of the excellence demanded by philosophy