By Oded Balaban
ISBN-10: 0739100750
ISBN-13: 9780739100752
Are humans antithetical in nature? Is there an intensive distinction among excitement, potency, and ethical sturdy, or is the clash purely imaginary? those have regularly been thought of the primary questions of Plato's so much shiny discussion, the Protagoras. Many interpreters have noticeable this discussion as a war of words among the moralist (Plato) and the relativist (Protagoras). This dichotomy is show up while Plato and Protagoras talk about theoretical questions pertaining to both wisdom of proof or wisdom of values. via a cautious exam of the textual content, particularly of useful questions about values, Oded Balaban breaks with culture via concluding that Plato and Protagoras don't exemplify attribute moralism or relativism in any respect. He reveals that the problem on the crux of the dialogue is in its place that of the criterion for wisdom and valuation; the Protagoras hence describes the hunt for the standard wherein whatever might be identified and valued. Balaban applies the basic query of criteria to that of the total box of rhetoric: should still a discourse be brief or lengthy, uncomplicated or complicated? what's the common for engaging in literary feedback? The author's innovative method of the Protagoras additionally includes a research of the parable of Protagoras and situates the discussion inside of its framework.
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Extra info for Plato and Protagoras: Truth and Relativism in Ancient Greek Philosophy
Sample text
C. W. Taylor is the best example of a commentator who gets too close to the Protagoras. Taylor wants to test the truth of the issues being treated in the Protagoras, this being the motive for his analysis. 26 Other commentators, the Platonists, try to justify him at any price. This is not interpretation either. 2. Another case, the opposite of the previous one, is when I am interested especially in the author and the author’s work. A question at this level would be, for instance, why the sophistic or anthropocentric Greek period comes after the physicalist one, and what this historical-intellectual frame tells us about Protagoras’ philosophy.
20 The problem with this interpretive strategy is again the danger of failing into dogmatism due to a strong commitment or identification with the author’s intentions. What, if not identification, could inspire somebody to adopt this notion of “complex” irony? Where else could it come from? It seems highly improbable, at the very least, that Plato would rely on a device almost guaranteed to confuse and mislead the vast majority of his readers. It seems to me more plausible to assume that the interpreter, Vlastos in this case, in unable to accept the far-reaching theses that Plato is trying to advance: Socrates’ disavowal of knowledge and his assertion that he is not a teacher of virtue, since virtue cannot be taught.
Interpretation is a reflection upon understanding. ” Writers and speakers do not interpret their words; at least, not at the moment they are writing or speaking. Readers and auditors do not interpret other people’s writings and words. They can interpret only later, at a second level of analysis when they, for example, reread what they wrote or rethink what they read or heard. In such case, they may even be unable to understand what they themselves wrote or read. Therefore, an interpreter needs a source that is not in itself an interpretation but a candidate for interpretation.
Plato and Protagoras: Truth and Relativism in Ancient Greek Philosophy by Oded Balaban
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