Protagoras | Page 9

Yet, in this, Plato is only following the historical
Socrates as he is depicted to us in Xenophon's Memorabilia. Like
Socrates, he finds on the surface of human life one common bond by
which the virtues are united,--their tendency to produce
happiness,--though such a principle is afterwards repudiated by him.
It remains to be considered in what relation the Protagoras stands to the

other Dialogues of Plato. That it is one of the earlier or purely Socratic
works--perhaps the last, as it is certainly the greatest of them--is
indicated by the absence of any allusion to the doctrine of reminiscence;
and also by the different attitude assumed towards the teaching and
persons of the Sophists in some of the later Dialogues. The Charmides,
Laches, Lysis, all touch on the question of the relation of knowledge to
virtue, and may be regarded, if not as preliminary studies or sketches of
the more important work, at any rate as closely connected with it. The
Io and the lesser Hippias contain discussions of the Poets, which offer a
parallel to the ironical criticism of Simonides, and are conceived in a
similar spirit. The affinity of the Protagoras to the Meno is more
doubtful. For there, although the same question is discussed, 'whether
virtue can be taught,' and the relation of Meno to the Sophists is much
the same as that of Hippocrates, the answer to the question is supplied
out of the doctrine of ideas; the real Socrates is already passing into the
Platonic one. At a later stage of the Platonic philosophy we shall find
that both the paradox and the solution of it appear to have been
retracted. The Phaedo, the Gorgias, and the Philebus offer further
corrections of the teaching of the Protagoras; in all of them the doctrine
that virtue is pleasure, or that pleasure is the chief or only good, is
distinctly renounced.
Thus after many preparations and oppositions, both of the characters of
men and aspects of the truth, especially of the popular and
philosophical aspect; and after many interruptions and detentions by
the way, which, as Theodorus says in the Theaetetus, are quite as
agreeable as the argument, we arrive at the great Socratic thesis that
virtue is knowledge. This is an aspect of the truth which was lost
almost as soon as it was found; and yet has to be recovered by every
one for himself who would pass the limits of proverbial and popular
philosophy. The moral and intellectual are always dividing, yet they
must be reunited, and in the highest conception of them are inseparable.
The thesis of Socrates is not merely a hasty assumption, but may be
also deemed an anticipation of some 'metaphysic of the future,' in
which the divided elements of human nature are reconciled.
PROTAGORAS
by
Plato

Translated by Benjamin Jowett.
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates, who is the narrator of the
Dialogue to his Companion. Hippocrates, Alcibiades and Critias.
Protagoras, Hippias and Prodicus (Sophists). Callias, a wealthy
Athenian.
SCENE: The House of Callias.
COMPANION: Where do you come from, Socrates? And yet I need
hardly ask the question, for I know that you have been in chase of the
fair Alcibiades. I saw him the day before yesterday; and he had got a
beard like a man,--and he is a man, as I may tell you in your ear. But I
thought that he was still very charming.
SOCRATES: What of his beard? Are you not of Homer's opinion, who
says
'Youth is most charming when the beard first appears'?
And that is now the charm of Alcibiades.
COMPANION: Well, and how do matters proceed? Have you been
visiting him, and was he gracious to you?
SOCRATES: Yes, I thought that he was very gracious; and especially
to-day, for I have just come from him, and he has been helping me in
an argument. But shall I tell you a strange thing? I paid no attention to
him, and several times I quite forgot that he was present.
COMPANION: What is the meaning of this? Has anything happened
between you and him? For surely you cannot have discovered a fairer
love than he is; certainly not in this city of Athens.
SOCRATES: Yes, much fairer.
COMPANION: What do you mean--a citizen or a foreigner?
SOCRATES: A foreigner.
COMPANION: Of what country?
SOCRATES: Of Abdera.
COMPANION: And is this stranger really in your opinion a fairer love
than the son of Cleinias?
SOCRATES: And is not the wiser always the fairer, sweet friend?
COMPANION: But have you really met, Socrates, with some wise
one?
SOCRATES: Say rather, with the wisest of all living men, if you are
willing to accord that title to Protagoras.
COMPANION: What! Is Protagoras in Athens?

SOCRATES: Yes; he has been here two days.
COMPANION: And do you