Open AccessThrasymachus of Chalcedon on the Platonic stage
Author(s) -
Dorota Zygmuntowicz
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
revista de filosofia antiga
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1981-9471
DOI - 10.11606/issn.1981-9471.v13i1p1-39
Subject(s) - style (visual arts) , rhetorical question , perspective (graphical) , conviction , ambiguity , epistemology , politics , philosophy , economic justice , degree (music) , principal (computer security) , literature , law , political science , art , computer science , linguistics , artificial intelligence , operating system , physics , acoustics
The conviction that Plato manipulated Thrasymachus’ views is today accepted by the scholarly opinion. Given the absence of testimonies regarding the political and moral views held by the historical Thrasymachus, the degree of this manipulation can be gauged only by assessing the degree of incoherence and ambiguity in the views of the Platonic Thrasymachus. This perspective, of necessity a self-referential one, is overcome by the hypothesis presented in the following article, namely, that Plato manipulates not as much the views of the historical Thrasymachus as the extremely concise and ambiguous thesis (that justice is “the advantage of the stronger”) which he has ascribed to him; and that the goal of this manipulation is to mock Thrasymachus’ style and rhetorical posture – both confirmed by testimonies outside the Platonic text – as ill suited to the philosophical reflection on the content of this thesis.