Abstract

In Plato's Protagoras, Socrates discusses the fundamental problem in education: Can virtue be taught? This question may be reformulated as follows: Can virtue be taught in terms of sophistic pedagogy, that is, a learning of values, rules and standards by means of which a city is organized, and the teaching of how to handle these values and rules to one's own individual benefit. By contrast, arguing unity of virtues and the associate thesis that virtue is knowledge, Socrates suggests that the true education implies self-conscious adherence to objective moral standards.