Euthydemus | Page 9

Some superior degree of wit or
subtlety is attributed to Euthydemus, who sees the trap in which
Socrates catches Dionysodorus.
The epilogue or conclusion of the Dialogue has been criticised as
inconsistent with the general scheme. Such a criticism is like similar
criticisms on Shakespeare, and proceeds upon a narrow notion of the
variety which the Dialogue, like the drama, seems to admit. Plato in the
abundance of his dramatic power has chosen to write a play upon a play,
just as he often gives us an argument within an argument. At the same
time he takes the opportunity of assailing another class of persons who
are as alien from the spirit of philosophy as Euthydemus and
Dionysodorus. The Eclectic, the Syncretist, the Doctrinaire, have been
apt to have a bad name both in ancient and modern times. The persons
whom Plato ridicules in the epilogue to the Euthydemus are of this
class. They occupy a border-ground between philosophy and politics;

they keep out of the dangers of politics, and at the same time use
philosophy as a means of serving their own interests. Plato quaintly
describes them as making two good things, philosophy and politics, a
little worse by perverting the objects of both. Men like Antiphon or
Lysias would be types of the class. Out of a regard to the
respectabilities of life, they are disposed to censure the interest which
Socrates takes in the exhibition of the two brothers. They do not
understand, any more than Crito, that he is pursuing his vocation of
detecting the follies of mankind, which he finds 'not unpleasant.'
(Compare Apol.)
Education is the common subject of all Plato's earlier Dialogues. The
concluding remark of Crito, that he has a difficulty in educating his two
sons, and the advice of Socrates to him that he should not give up
philosophy because he has no faith in philosophers, seems to be a
preparation for the more peremptory declaration of the Meno that
'Virtue cannot be taught because there are no teachers.'
The reasons for placing the Euthydemus early in the series are: (1) the
similarity in plan and style to the Protagoras, Charmides, and
Lysis;--the relation of Socrates to the Sophists is still that of humorous
antagonism, not, as in the later Dialogues of Plato, of embittered hatred;
and the places and persons have a considerable family likeness; (2) the
Euthydemus belongs to the Socratic period in which Socrates is
represented as willing to learn, but unable to teach; and in the spirit of
Xenophon's Memorabilia, philosophy is defined as 'the knowledge
which will make us happy;' (3) we seem to have passed the stage
arrived at in the Protagoras, for Socrates is no longer discussing
whether virtue can be taught--from this question he is relieved by the
ingenuous declaration of the youth Cleinias; and (4) not yet to have
reached the point at which he asserts 'that there are no teachers.' Such
grounds are precarious, as arguments from style and plan are apt to be
(Greek). But no arguments equally strong can be urged in favour of
assigning to the Euthydemus any other position in the series.
EUTHYDEMUS
by
Plato
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates, who is the narrator of the

Dialogue. Crito, Cleinias, Euthydemus, Dionysodorus, Ctesippus.
SCENE: The Lyceum.
CRITO: Who was the person, Socrates, with whom you were talking
yesterday at the Lyceum? There was such a crowd around you that I
could not get within hearing, but I caught a sight of him over their
heads, and I made out, as I thought, that he was a stranger with whom
you were talking: who was he?
SOCRATES: There were two, Crito; which of them do you mean?
CRITO: The one whom I mean was seated second from you on the
right-hand side. In the middle was Cleinias the young son of Axiochus,
who has wonderfully grown; he is only about the age of my own
Critobulus, but he is much forwarder and very good-looking: the other
is thin and looks younger than he is.
SOCRATES: He whom you mean, Crito, is Euthydemus; and on my
left hand there was his brother Dionysodorus, who also took part in the
conversation.
CRITO: Neither of them are known to me, Socrates; they are a new
importation of Sophists, as I should imagine. Of what country are they,
and what is their line of wisdom?
SOCRATES: As to their origin, I believe that they are natives of this
part of the world, and have migrated from Chios to Thurii; they were
driven out of Thurii, and have been living for many years past in these
regions. As to their wisdom, about which you ask, Crito, they are
wonderful-- consummate! I never knew what the true pancratiast was
before; they are simply