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purpose to this dialogue , it would appear to be intended not to hold up the Sophists either to ridicule or obloquy , but to show that it was possible to go much beyond the point which they had attained in moral and political philosophy ; that , on the whole , they left the science of mind and of virtue in an extremely unsatisfactory state ; that they could not
stand the test of the rigorous dialectics which Socrates carried into these inquiries ; and that the truth could only be ascertained by that more accurate mode of sifting opinions , which the dialectic method ( or that of close discussion between two persons , one of whom interrogates , and the other answers ) furnishes , but which speech-making , and the mere delivery of doctrines from master to student ( the practice of the Sophists ) absolutely preclude .
A brief abstract of the dialogue will , I think , confirm this notion of its scope and object , by showing that Socrates merely plays with opinions throughout . A young man , named Hippocrates , having heard , late in the evening , that Protagoras has come to Athens , hurries to Socrates in the morning , before it is light , and presses him to go with him to Protagoras , expressing the most earnest desire to become the scholar of so wise a
man , and obtain a participation in his wisdom . SocTates consents ; but as it is too early to visit Protagoras at that hour in the morning , they pass the intermediate time in conversation , Socrates then , in order , as he says , to try the strength of Hippocrates , begins to question him as follows : —* If you were desirous of receiving the instructions of your
namesake Hippocrates of Cos , and were asked in what capacity , and in order to become what , you would answer , In the capacity of a physician , and in order that you might become a physician . If you offered money to Polycleitus or Pheidias , that they might take you under their tuition , and were asked the same question , you would answer , In the capacity of statuaries , and in order that you might become a statuary . Now if any one should ask you in what capacity you are seeking the instructions of
Protagoras , what would be your answer ?— ' In the capacity of a Sophist . ' 'And what do you expect to become through his instructions V Hippocrates blushed , and answered , * If this be like the two preceding cases , I must expect to become a Sophist . * fc Should you not , then , be ashamed , * said Socrates , * to hold yourself forth as a Sophist to the Greeks V He confessed that he should . ( This is one of the passages from which it may be clearly inferred , that the profession of a Sophist was a disreputable one in Greece before Plato wrote . )
Socrates , however , supplied Hippocrates with a defence , by telling him that he supposed he did not intend going to Protagoras as he would go to a physician or an artist , to learn his profession , but as he would go to a writing-master , a gymnast , or a music-master , not in order to become himself a music-master , &c . &c , but to learn so much of these arts as belonged to a liberal education . Hippocrates assenting , Socrates continued : —Do you know what you are about to do ? You
instance , among many others , that prosecutions for blasphemy are not of modern invention . The same biographer mentions , that Protagoras , until his abilities excited the notice of his countryman Democritus , ( both were citizen 8 of Abdera , ) had followed the humble calling of a porter ; in which station he signalized himself by being the first inventor of a knot , —if we may be permitted thus to translate the word < rv \ n .
Untitled Article
Plato ' s Dialogues ; the Protagoras . 93
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1834, page 93, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2630/page/5/
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