Sophistic Threat and Socratic Shield

Abstract

This dissertation looks at the way that educational systems affect the legal and political realms. The context in this dissertation is the ancient Greek practice of sophistry and its effect on the nascent Athenian democracy. A sophistical education in persuasive speaking could only be afforded by the wealthy, and Athenians would send their sons to a sophist in order to learn how to be persuasive in the Assembly and influence the decision of the democratic body in their favor. My inquiry surrounds whether or not that inequality in education serves to undermine democracy or if it in fact strengthens the Athenian state – on the one hand, there exists an inequality based on wealth, but on the other hand, education in virtue (what the sophists claim to teach, it remains to be seen whether or not they succeed in delivering an education in virtue) cannot be a detriment to the polis. I conclude that while a sophistical education is premised on wealth inequality, and as such cannot serve the polis properly, there does exist a way to improve the polis by means of virtue that does not rely on wealth inequality: Socratic education. Socrates fully embodies the democratic value of equality and the virtuous improvement of the Athenians in his 1) commitment to beginning in ignorance rather than an assumed knowledge of the truth, 2) his refusal to flatter his conversation partners which can serve to disguise the truth, and 3) his adherence to dialectic in which two (or more) interlocutors converse as equals, with the aim of uncovering the truth together.