Plato’s Protagoras: Part 2:“The Unity of Virtue”(328 -end)
Details
The Protagoras features a conversation between Socrates and the famous sophist Protagoras. As a professional philosopher and powerful rhetorician, Protagoras claims the ability to teach virtue.
Can virtue be taught?
Protagoras begins by asserting, and Socrates by denying, the teachability of virtue. Later, Socrates ends by affirming that virtue is knowledge while Protagoras strives to show that virtue is not knowledge. Doesn't this seem to be a reversal?
Socrates concludes by professing his disinterested love of the truth, and remarks on the singular manner in which he and his adversary had changed sides. Socrates is not satisfied with the result, however, and would like to renew the enquiry with the help of Protagoras in the future with the question: what is virtue? And so the end of the dialogue returns paradoxically to the beginning now propelled to new thoughtfulness about the important questions involved.
Join us as Socrates takes on one of the most mighty interlocutors in all the Greek world.
REQUIRED READING:
TEXT: HERE (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1591) (or Audio (https://librivox.org/protagoras-by-plato/))
OPTIONAL MEDIA:
Leo Strauss lectures: Here (http://leostrausscenter.uchicago.edu/course/plato-protagoras-spring-quarter-1965) (You can start at Session 6)
## Session 2: Protagoras, Part II — “The Unity of Virtue”
Reading: Plato’s Protagoras (328d–end)
Focus: Socrates’ cross-examination of Protagoras
Description:
In the second half of Protagoras, Socrates takes the floor. He challenges Protagoras to define whether the virtues (justice, piety, temperance, courage, wisdom) are distinct or one and the same. The discussion deepens into questions about knowledge, pleasure, and the nature of the good.
This session will explore:
- Socrates’s method of dialectic questioning
- The “unity of the virtues” thesis
We’ll trace how Plato moves from myth and rhetoric to logic and definition — and consider what this says about education, politics, and the philosophical life.