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Book Club: Early Socratic Dialogues, 8, Euthydemus and the difference between sophistry and philosophy
We have finally reached the last installment of my chapter-by-chapter commentary on Early Socratic Dialogues, the wonderful collection with new translations put out by Penguin and edited by Chris Emlyn-Jones. (The first five installments can be found at the old Footnotes to Plato, here; part 6 is here; and part 7 here.) This last entry is about the Euthydemus, whose main purpose is to contrast the Socratic approach to philosophy with that of the Sophists, represented by Plato in the form of the brothers Euthydemus (the title character) and Dionysodorus.
Since the Sophist Protagoras is mentioned here in the past tense, while the general Alcibiades is referred to as being still alive, historians place the action between 420 and 405 BCE. Philosophical and linguistic analyses situate the dialogue near the end of the early Socratic period, but with Plato still firmly presenting his mentor’s thinking, as distinct from the middle and late dialogues, which are more representative of Plato’s own mature philosophy. The Euthydemus is also one of the most amusing and best written of all Plato’s dialogues. Indeed, since it features a prologue and a clearly defined epilogue, it is even tempting to treat it as a (philosophical) play.
