A commentary on Plato's Euthydemus

Abstract

This thesis comprises two main parts: Introduction to and Commentary on Plato’s Euthydemus. The Introduction is divided into seven sections: #1. General, including a summary of the dialogue. #2. The date of the Euthydemus. The Euthydemus and the Meno must be regarded as contemporaneous, being written after the Gorgias, Menexenus and Lysis and before the Cratylus (if it belongs to this period), Phaedo and Symposium. At this period Plato shows a particular interest in eristic and its practitioners. The absolute date can be put with confidence between 387 and 380 B.C., but not more precisely. #3. The characters of the dialogue. These are examined and assessed. #4. Purpose and philosophical significance. Plato is writing for his own time and his fundamental purpose is ethical and educational. In the Euthydemus he has several aims, among which are: to distinguish his method of dialectic from the eristic method of his rivals; to train his readers in logic; to amuse them; to lead them towards a doctrine of a supreme branch of knowledge; to persuade his public that his is the proper way to educate the young (to this extent the dialogue is something of a manifesto for the newly founded school in the Academy). #5. Whom does Plato attack in the Euthydemus? The main opponents are certain philosophers or teachers whom Plato calls eristic and who probably belong to the Megaric school - they cannot be identified with any greater certainty. Other targets are Isocrates and Antisthenes. #6. The Euthydemus as literature. Attention is given to the dramatic technique and to various stylistic features of the dialogue. #7. Eristic. A brief outline of what eristic was. The Commentary elucidates Burnet’s Greek text, with attention to linguistic, stylistic and philosophical aspects. The twenty-one sophisms of the dialogue are analysed in some detail. The following recurrent themes may be picked out: 1. Socrates is concerned with reality, while the sophists are interested merely in words; he aims at truth and they aim at refutation. 2. While the sophisms are not usually ‘solved’, Plato often makes Socrates give clues as to how they work, and the reader is expected to work them out for himself. 3. On several occasions Plato puts into the mouths of the sophists hidden references to his own doctrines; more than once he apparently mentions a doctrine that is usually thought to belong to a period later than the composition of the Euthydemus. 4. The dramatic structure of the Euthydemus is particularly well marked, and attention is drawn to Plato’s literary technique. 5. The overriding concern is education; Plato is recommending his own methods and pointing out the complete inadequacy of his rivals as teachers.