Thrasymachus, the Sight-lover
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1981-9471.v18i1p25-36Keywords:
plato, Republic, Trasymachus, JusticeAbstract
The aim of this paper is to explain why Thrasymachus, upon first appearing in Republic I, prohibits Socrates from defining justice as what is good. I argue that Thrasymachus views such definitions as equivocal, since he conceives of the good as relative: what is good must be good for someone. This relative conception of the good makes Thrasymachus similar to the sight-lovers, who believe in good things, which are relatively good, but deny the existence of the good itself, which is absolutely good. Understanding Thrasymachus as a sight-lover permits an illuminating reframing of his outlook and his significance for the larger project of the Republic.
Downloads
References
Adam, James. 1905. The Republic of Plato. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Anderson, Merrick E. 2016. “Thrasymachus’ Sophistic Account of Justice in Republic I.” Ancient Philosophy 36 (1): 151-172. https://doi.org/10.5840/ancientphil201636110
Baltzly, Dirk. 1997. “Knowledge and Belief in Republic V.” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 79: 239–272. https://doi.org/10.1515/agph.1997.79.3.239
Barney, Rachel. 2017. “Callicles and Thrasymachus.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL=<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/callicles-thrasymachus/>.
Brentlinger, John. 1972. “Incomplete Predicates and the Two-World Theory of the Phaedo.” Phronesis 17 (1): pp. 61–79. https://doi.org/10.1163/156852872X00231
Cooper, John. 1997. Plato: Complete Works. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Cross, R. C., and Woozley, A. D. (1964). Plato’s Republic: A Philosophical Commentary. London/Basingstoke: Macmillan Press.
Franklin, Lee. 2012. “Inventing Intermediates: Mathematical Discourse and Its Objects in Republic VII.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 50 (4): 483-506. https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.2012.0080
Grube, G. M. A. 1992. Plato: The Republic. Revised by C. D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Halliwell, Stephen. 1993. Plato: Republic 5. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Harte, Verity. 2019. “Plato’s Metaphysics.” In The Oxford Handbook of Plato, 2nd ed., edited by Gail Fine, 455-480. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190639730.013.20
Lesher, J. H. 2010. “The Meaning of “saphēneia” in Plato’s Divided Line.” In Plato’s Republic: A Critical Guide, edited by Mark L. McPherran, 171-187. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511763090.010
Meinwald, Constance. 2017. “Who are the Philotheamones and What Are They Thinking? Ta Polla Kala in Republic V.” Ancient Philosophy 37 (1): 39-57. https://doi.org/10.5840/ancientphil20173713
Moore, Christopher. 2020. Calling Philosophers Names: On the Origins of a Discipline. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Nehamas, Alexander. 1979. “Self–Predication and Plato’s Theory of Forms.” American Philosophical Quarterly 16 (2): 93–103. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20009746
Nehamas, Alexander. 1975. “Plato on the Imperfection of the Sensible World.” American Philosophical Quarterly 12 (2): 105–117. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20009565
Nehamas, Alexander. 1973. “Predication and Forms of Opposites in the Phaedo.” The Review of Metaphysics 26 (3): 461–491. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20126252
Owen, G. E. L. 1957. “A Proof in the Περὶ Ἰδεῶν.” The Journal of Hellenistic Studies 77 (1): 103–111. https://doi.org/10.2307/628641
Penner, Terry. 2006. “The Forms in the Republic.” In The Blackwell Guide to Plato’s Republic, edited by Gerasimos Santas, 234-262. Oxford/Malden/Carlton: Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470776414.ch12
Shorey, Paul. 1937. The Republic of Plato. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Silverman, Allan. 2002. The Dialectic of Essence. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sparshott, F. E. 1966. “Socrates and Thrasymachus.” The Monist 50, pp. 421–459. https://doi.org/10.5840/monist196650330
Sparshott, F. E. 1957. “Plato and Thrasymachus.” University of Toronto Quarterly 27, pp. 54–61. https://doi.org/10.3138/utq.27.1.54
Welton, William A. 2006. “Thrasymachus vs. Socrates: What Counts as a Good Answer to the Question ‘What is Justice?’ (Republic 336b–9b).” Apeiron 39 (4): 293–317. https://doi.org/10.1515/APEIRON.2006.39.4.293
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Clifford Roberts
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Copyright
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC By 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
