Phil Guides — Understanding Plato's Protagoras
Visual First-Read Edition
This is a tutorial, not a retelling. Plato's Protagoras is a masterpiece of argumentative reversal: two experts set out on opposite sides of one question and finish the afternoon holding each other's positions.
You will watch a young man try to buy an art he cannot name, a great myth answer two hard objections, a fight over whether long speeches or short questions can find anything out, and a final stretch that turns weakness of will into a mistake in measurement.
Read the plates first. They carry the thoughts. The notes teach them. If a figure and a note disagree, reread both.
This edition includes:
- Original study notes for each chapter
- Original diagrams that map arguments, characters, and structure
- Original charts summarizing themes and comparisons
Contents
How to Read the Protagoras — What a contest between two experts is for
Buying Wisdom Before Dawn — Hippocrates and the art he cannot name
The House of Callias — Three celebrities and a doorman
Can Virtue Be Taught? — Two objections from Athenian practice
The Great Speech — Prometheus, reverence, and punishment as teaching
One Virtue or Many? — Parts of a face or pieces of gold
Reading Simonides — Why the poets have to be dismissed
Measuring and the Laugh — Pleasure, courage, and the swap of sides