Euthydemus (McBrayer & Nichols Edition)
English translation of Plato's dialogue of Socrates with two prominent Sophists, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, and their conflicting philosophical views, in which Plato satirizes the logical fallacies of the Sophists. With notes, introduction, interpretive essay, and a glossary of important words.
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English translation of Plato's dialogue of Socrates with two prominent Sophists, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, and their conflicting philosophical views, in which Plato satirizes the logical fallacies of the Sophists. With notes, introduction, interpretive essay, and a glossary of important words.
Focus Philosophical Library translations are close to and are non-interpretative of the original text, with the notes and a glossary intending to provide the reader with some sense of the terms and the concepts as they were understood by Plato’s immediate audience.
From the Introduction:
"Neglected for ages by Plato scholars, the Euthydemus has in recent years attracted renewed attention. The dialogue, in which Socrates converses with two sophists whose techniques of verbal manipulation utterly disengage language from any grounding in stable meaning or reality, is in many ways a dialogue for our times. Contemporary questions of language and power permeate the speech and action of the dialogue. The two sophists—Euthydemus and his brother Dionysodorus—explicitly question whether speech has any connection to truth and specifically whether anything can be said about justice and nobility that cannot also be said about their opposites."
About the Authors:
Mary P. Nichols is the Professor of Political Science at Baylor University. She studies the history of political thought, especially Greek political theory; politics and literature; and politics and film. Her publications range from studies of Plato and Aristotle to film directors such as Woody Allen, John Ford, and Alfred Hitchcock.
Gregory A. McBrayer is Senior Editor at PEGS (Political Economy of the Good Society) and visiting professor at Gettysburg College. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. His dissertation examined Aristotle’s treatment of the Socratic paradox that no one does wrong voluntarily.
Denise Schaeffer is Associate Professor of Political Science at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. She has published numerous articles in the history of political thought, from Plato and Aristotle to Rousseau and Nietzsche. She is currently working on a book on freedom and judgment in Rousseau’s Emile.