Philosophy 290-9

The seminar will work through Plato’s unjustly neglected dialogue, the Euthydemus, examining its analysis of sophistry and the relation (or the failure of relations) between the sophistic arguments and the Socratic discussion of virtue and knowledge. We shall consider the connections between the Euthydemus and other Platonic dialogues (notably Meno, Republic and Theaetetus) and reflect on Aristotle’s account of the sophistic arguments in his Sophistical Refutations.