Plato: Protagoras

Can virtue be taught?

Plato's Protagoras is one of the most vivid, dramatic and intellectually engaging of the Socratic dialogues. Set in the house of the wealthy Athenian Callias, it brings Socrates face to face with Protagoras, the most celebrated Sophist of his age, before an audience that includes Hippias, Prodicus, Alcibiades and other prominent figures of classical Athens.

At the heart of their encounter lies a question of lasting philosophical importance: can virtue be taught? From this central problem emerge further questions. Are justice, piety, self-control, courage and wisdom separate virtues, or different expressions of a single human excellence? Is moral knowledge sufficient for right action? Can pleasure and pain be measured rationally? And what should genuine education seek to cultivate?

The dialogue moves between sustained argument, myth, poetic interpretation, humour and intellectual rivalry. Protagoras' celebrated account of the origins of political society is followed by Socrates' relentless examination of virtue, knowledge and human conduct. Their positions gradually shift until each appears to approach the very conclusion he initially opposed.

About This Edition

This EPHILO edition presents the complete dialogue in carefully edited contemporary British English. It includes an extensive introduction, contextual studies of Plato and Protagoras, explanatory commentary and a fully navigable system of scholarly references.

• Complete English text of Plato's Protagoras
• Introduction, translation and commentary by Dr Ioannis S. Christodoulou
• 93 linked explanatory and philosophical notes
• 265 Stephanus references, from 309a to 362a
• Biographical and historical material on Plato and Protagoras
• Professionally structured and validated EPUB3 edition
• British English throughout

An essential work for readers interested in Plato, Socrates, the Sophists, ethics, education, political philosophy and the intellectual world of classical Greece.

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