Celebrity Death Match Special: Plato versus Isaac Asimov

[A street in Athens. Late evening. SOCRATES and R. DANEEL OLIVAW]

OLIVAW: Greetings.

SOCRATES: Are you a demon? A messenger of the Gods? A--

OLIVAW: I am a robot from the future. There are some things I need to understand better. People say you ma

“It makes no difference to me, provided you give the answers, whether it is your own opinion or not. I am primarily interested in testing the argument, although it may happen both that the questioner, myself, and my respondent wind up being tested.”

***

“Well, then, do you say that ignorance is to

This is maybe the only dialogue I've read which was actually a dialogue. So often, a Platonic dialogue consists of little more than Socrates asking a series of questions, some of them lasting for a page or more, and then his interlocutor giving a one to three word answer. Here, Protagoras stands up

Socrates on teaching morality
24 January 2013

This I feel is one of Plato's later dialogues, though it is still very Socratic in form. It is believed that the main part of the dialogue (it is not really a dialogue in that it seems to be more like a retelling of an earlier event, an event which most l

This is a complete masterpiece of rhetoric. It ranks with Gorgias and often surpasses the Republic in terms of logical focus. All educators should read it. Plato reminds us that we cannot separate Being, Rhetoric, and Goodness. Whatever you learn, you take into your soul.

That’s how the dialogue begi

امروز بر آن شدی که روح خود را به سوفیستی بسپاری تا آن را بپروراند. میدانی سوفیست کیست؟ اگر پاسخ این سوال را ندانی معلوم خواهد شد نمیدانی روح خود را به چگونه کسی می سپاری و روح تو را بدتر خواهد ساخت یا بهتر.

.پروتاگوراس محاوره ای درباره تربیت است. در آغاز هیپوکراتس را می بینیم که با شوق زیادی نزد سقرا

“And have they not been shown to be cowards through their ignorance of dangers?
“Assuredly, he said.
And because of that ignorance they are cowards?
He assented.
And the reason why they are cowards is admitted by you to be cowardice?
He again assented.
Then the ignorance of what is and is not dangerous i

در این رساله سقراط با رفتن به خانه‌ی کالیاس برای ملاقات با مشهورترین سوفیست یعنی پروتاگوراس و حضور در جمعی از خردمندترین افراد آتن با او وارد بحث در خصوص فضیلت و اجزای آن می‌گردد. در نیمه‌های راه ضمنِ برشمردن اجزای فضیلت پروتاگوراس اظهار می‌دارد که شجاعت دانایی نیست و سقراط در پی اثبات نادرستی مدعای

Socrates, my friend, you were bit of a dick in there.

Protagoras made an exemplary opponent in this dialogue, standing his ground and holds himself quite well in front of Socrates. Socrates doesn't just ask questions but decimates some of the views held by Protagoras. The dialogue is aesthetically pl

But you cannot buy the wares of knowledge and carry them away in another vessel; when you have paid for them you must receive them into the soul and go your way, either greatly harmed or greatly benefited

In style the Protagoras is intermediate between the questioning Socrates of the early dialog