ANCIENT ETHICS 2 (original) (raw)

The 'sophists' were viewed with considerable suspicion and hostility by more conservative members of society, who feared that the verbal techniques and logical pyrotechnics they taught undermined traditional ethical values, and thus 'corrupted' the youth. 5 Among his contemporaries, Socrates was generally perceived to be just another sophist. In fact, he was eventually charged with corrupting the youth, tried and convicted by an Athenian jury, then executed. Plato goes to great lengths in his dialogues to defend Socrates against the charge of corruption, and to distinguish Socrates' brand of inquiry and argumentation, which he labels 'philosophy', from those of the other so-called sophists. 6 Indeed it is largely due to Plato's success in this endeavour that the term 'sophist' came to have pejorative connotations, reflected in the English word, 'sophistical'. 7 The sophists, Socrates, and the poetic tradition thus provide the background and context for Plato's ethical writings. However, even if we begin our study of ancient ethics with Plato, we will not be neglecting that context, because the context is itself preserved and set up for examination in Plato's dialogues. The poets are regularly quoted and discussed, the major sophists and teachers of rhetoric, along with their devotees, appear as characters, and Socrates is the dominant speaker in all but a few of the dialogues. Plato portrays his teacher as interrogating sophists and orators, along with well-known Athenian public figures from the fifth century. 8 These dialogues are not accurate reports of conversations between Socrates and the characters depicted. Rather, they are dramatic creations in which Plato uses the figure of Socrates to work through the ethical issues of the day. Indeed, in certain cases it is historically impossible or highly improbable for such conversations to have taken place. 9 The extent to which the views articulated by Plato's Socrates are faithful to the philosophy of the historical Socrates is another matter, and a disputed one. There is little in the way of corroborating evidence, since Socrates himself wrote nothing, and what little remains of the 'Socratic dialogues' written by others shows considerable variation in the doctrines and personality attributed to Socrates. 11 The Socratic dialogues of Plato, Aeschines, and Antisthenes and the teachings of the Socratic Aristippus inspired such different ethical traditions that, in later Greek philosophy, Socrates is revered as a figurehead by schools that espouse rival doctrines. 12 Regardless of their historical accuracy, however, Plato's dialogues were influential in shaping much of that later conception of Socrates, so we have good reason and no better alternative than to begin our study with Plato.