Protagoras: Refuting Sophists

In this podcast episode, Mark and Mike delve into Plato's second tetralogy, starting with the Protagoras. This tetralogy is all about Sophists and moral relativism. The Dialogue on Protagoras is framed as a conversation between Socrates and a young man named Hippocrates, who is seeking to learn from Protagoras. Protagoras believes that virtue can be taught, and that each individual is the measure of what is true and good. However, Socrates and in typical Socrates fashion, he begins to poke hole in Protagoras's arguments. Socrates and Protagoras go at it as equals in this dialogue, which is refreshing. However, the whole thing does read a bit like a conversation you would have with yourself in the shower. Sophists like to emphasize how pretty the words they say can be. The rest of the tetralogy is evidently less amicable between Socrates and his debaters. If you like the episode, be sure to share it and check us out on TikTok.