How seriously do you take the words that you say? Does it matter to you that you remain logically consistent or if the ideas you espouse even make sense at all? Why should one even care and does it matter?
I’ve started reading Plato and my first taste has been Socrates’ discussion with Protagoras. Protagoras is some kind of sophist which brings with it for me a negative connotation and Socrates seems to be grilling him on all sorts of questions which at times feels a lot like splitting hairs. But I’m learning to ask questions and think deeply about what you are hearing; don’t just accept. One must examine.
As Socrates says to Hippocrates before they go to seek out Protagoras:
Do you see what kind of danger you are about to put your soul in? If you had to entrust your body to someone and risk its becoming healthy or ill, you could consider carefully whether you should entrust it or not, and you would confer with your family and friends for days on end. But when it comes to something you value more than your body, namely your soul, and when everything concerning whether you do well or ill in your life depends on whether it becomes worthy or worthless, I don’t see you getting together with your father or brother or a single one of your friends to consider whether or not to entrust your soul to this recently arrived foreigner.
Part 313, a, b
Basically, how deeply do you consider the teachings, the ideas, the concepts that are presented to you, whether explicitly or implicitly. Do you treat this as a serious thing or do you just indulge as if choosing from a buffet without thought and without rigorously testing them to see if they are actually good for your soul or not; if they actually will make your soul “worthy or worthless”.
After he engages in this “dialectic” with Protagoras, he asks Socrates if he'd like for him to state the majority opinion or his own is and Socrates responds:
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.
Part 333, c
Socrates is interested in testing the ideas rather than just accepting without rigorous evaluation. Why would they then end up being tested? In the course of answering these questions, you'll have to choose a response, whether you accept the truth of where it leads no matter how humbling an experience it may be. Are you interested in being tested Protagoras or are the motives of your pursuit less than the pursuit of truth and something ulterior?
Earlier, when they enter the room where Protagoras is Plato observes there are people from other nations who follow him from place to place to hear his wisdom and…
He enchants them with his voice like Orpheus, and they follow the sound of his voice in a trance. There were some locals also in this chorus, whose dance simply delighted me when I saw how beautifully they took care never to get in Protagoras’ way. When he turned around with his flanking groups, the audience to the rear would split into two in a very orderly way and circle around to either side and form up again behind him. It was quite lovely.
Part 315, b
It’s so easy to be captivated by the persuasive rhetoric of someone else, especially when others follow him. We being creatures who like to fit in can easily just fall in line but when someone is “selling” their ideas to us, we can’t discount that they may not have the purest motives at heart and seeing as the things we believe nourish or impoverish our souls and thereby the entire course of our life, we should put those ideas to the test.
I’ve started reading Plato and my first taste has been Socrates’ discussion with Protagoras. Protagoras is some kind of sophist which brings with it for me a negative connotation and Socrates seems to be grilling him on all sorts of questions which at times feels a lot like splitting hairs. But I’m learning to ask questions and think deeply about what you are hearing; don’t just accept. One must examine.
As Socrates says to Hippocrates before they go to seek out Protagoras:
Do you see what kind of danger you are about to put your soul in? If you had to entrust your body to someone and risk its becoming healthy or ill, you could consider carefully whether you should entrust it or not, and you would confer with your family and friends for days on end. But when it comes to something you value more than your body, namely your soul, and when everything concerning whether you do well or ill in your life depends on whether it becomes worthy or worthless, I don’t see you getting together with your father or brother or a single one of your friends to consider whether or not to entrust your soul to this recently arrived foreigner.
Part 313, a, b
Basically, how deeply do you consider the teachings, the ideas, the concepts that are presented to you, whether explicitly or implicitly. Do you treat this as a serious thing or do you just indulge as if choosing from a buffet without thought and without rigorously testing them to see if they are actually good for your soul or not; if they actually will make your soul “worthy or worthless”.
After he engages in this “dialectic” with Protagoras, he asks Socrates if he'd like for him to state the majority opinion or his own is and Socrates responds:
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.
Part 333, c
Socrates is interested in testing the ideas rather than just accepting without rigorous evaluation. Why would they then end up being tested? In the course of answering these questions, you'll have to choose a response, whether you accept the truth of where it leads no matter how humbling an experience it may be. Are you interested in being tested Protagoras or are the motives of your pursuit less than the pursuit of truth and something ulterior?
Earlier, when they enter the room where Protagoras is Plato observes there are people from other nations who follow him from place to place to hear his wisdom and…
He enchants them with his voice like Orpheus, and they follow the sound of his voice in a trance. There were some locals also in this chorus, whose dance simply delighted me when I saw how beautifully they took care never to get in Protagoras’ way. When he turned around with his flanking groups, the audience to the rear would split into two in a very orderly way and circle around to either side and form up again behind him. It was quite lovely.
Part 315, b
It’s so easy to be captivated by the persuasive rhetoric of someone else, especially when others follow him. We being creatures who like to fit in can easily just fall in line but when someone is “selling” their ideas to us, we can’t discount that they may not have the purest motives at heart and seeing as the things we believe nourish or impoverish our souls and thereby the entire course of our life, we should put those ideas to the test.