Protagoras | Page 3

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This etext was prepared by Sue Asscher

PROTAGORAS
by Plato

Translated by Benjamin Jowett

INTRODUCTION.
The Protagoras, like several of the Dialogues of Plato, is put into the
mouth of Socrates, who describes a conversation which had taken place
between himself and the great Sophist at the house of Callias--'the man

who had spent more upon the Sophists than all the rest of the
world'--and in which the learned Hippias and the grammarian Prodicus
had also shared, as well as Alcibiades and Critias, both of whom said a
few words--in the presence of a distinguished company consisting of
disciples of Protagoras and of leading Athenians belonging to the
Socratic circle. The dialogue commences with a request on the part of
Hippocrates that Socrates would introduce him to the celebrated teacher.
He has come before the dawn had risen--so fervid is his zeal. Socrates
moderates his excitement and advises him to find out 'what Protagoras
will make of him,' before he becomes his pupil.
They go together to the house of Callias; and Socrates, after explaining
the purpose of their visit to Protagoras, asks the question, 'What he will
make of Hippocrates.' Protagoras answers, 'That he will make him a
better and a wiser man.' 'But in what will he be better?'--Socrates
desires to have a more precise answer. Protagoras replies, 'That he will
teach him prudence in affairs private and public; in short, the science or
knowledge of human life.'
This, as Socrates admits, is a noble profession; but he is or rather would
have been doubtful, whether such knowledge can be taught, if
Protagoras had not assured him of the fact, for two reasons: (1) Because
the Athenian people, who recognize in their assemblies the distinction
between the skilled and the unskilled in the arts, do not distinguish
between the trained politician and the untrained; (2) Because the wisest
and best Athenian citizens do not teach their sons political virtue. Will
Protagoras answer these objections?
Protagoras explains his views in the form of an apologue, in which,
after Prometheus had given men the arts, Zeus is represented as sending
Hermes to them, bearing with him Justice and Reverence. These are not,
like the arts, to be imparted to a few only, but all men are to be
partakers of them. Therefore the Athenian people are right in
distinguishing between the skilled and unskilled in the arts, and not
between skilled and unskilled politicians. (1) For all men have the
political virtues to a certain degree, and are obliged to say that they
have them, whether they have them or not. A man would be thought a
madman who professed an art which he did not know; but he would be
equally thought a madman if he did not profess a virtue which he had
not. (2) And that the political virtues can be taught and acquired, in the

opinion of the Athenians, is proved by the fact that they punish
evil-doers, with a view to prevention, of course --mere retribution is for
beasts, and not for men. (3) Again, would parents who teach her sons
lesser matters leave them ignorant of the common duty of citizens? To
the doubt of Socrates the best answer is the fact, that the education of
youth in virtue begins almost as soon as they can speak, and is
continued by the state when they pass out of the parental control. (4)
Nor need we wonder that wise and good fathers sometimes have foolish
and worthless sons. Virtue, as we were saying, is not the private
possession of any man, but is shared by all, only however to the extent
of which each individual is by nature capable. And, as a matter of fact,
even the worst of civilized mankind