Plato’s Protagoras is one of the most dramatically rich of the
dialogues. It begins with and encounter
between Socrates and “a friend.” Who is
this friend? Could it be Plato? The friend opens with a question: “where have
you been, Oh Socrates?” After a little
banter concerning Socrates’ love life (Alcibiades. Was Plato jealous?), Socrates tells the
tale.
He was awoken in the middle of
the night by a young man, Hippocrates.
The young man has learned that the famous sophist Protagoras is in
town. As becomes apparent, Hippocrates
wants to gain entry to the house of Callias, where Protagoras and a great many
other intellectuals are gathered. He
expects (correctly) that Socrates can get him past the door.
When the two do get inside, we
are greeted with a marvelous spectacle.
Protagoras is walking in a circle around a garden, giving a lecture as
he walks. He is followed by a
considerable entourage of disciples and fellow travelers, with those in the
rear (presumably lower on the totem pole) trying hard to hear what he is saying. From time to time he reverses course and the
entourage parts, allows him to pass, and reforms behind him. All on its own, that is a marvelous
meditation on academic culture. That is
only part of the spectacle.
In one corner Hippias of Ellis
sits “on a high chair” surrounded by his own flock, discussing astronomy. In a side room Prodicus of Ceos, still in
bed, has pulled a third group into his intellectual orbit.
This spectacle, taken as a
whole, reminds me forcefully of Raphael’s School
of Athens. Perhaps Raphael was
trying to remind me of the Protagoras. Philosophers and scientist sort themselves
into tribes and parties just as political men do. There is no avoiding this. Genuine philosophy, however, always begins by
challenging some party line, even if the challenge in turn creates another
party line.
Listening to one of my favorite
podcasts recently (Buddhist Geeks), I heard this quote (if I remember it
right): philosophers do not seek the truth, they seek peace. I think that this is right, in the long term. The philosopher seeks the peace of wisdom,
which is settled in knowledge of all the important things. In the short term, however, (and the short
term is still going on) the philosopher makes not peace but war. He challenges what is settled, agreed upon,
what everyone knows or what we, the enlightened, know.
Socrates’ entry into the
conversation breaks up all the order.
Protagoras stops circumambulating.
Hippias gets off his highchair and Prodicus gets out of bed. That is what philosophy looks like.
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