on 28-Nov-2017 (Tue)

A few verbs with initial ε take ει not η, e.g. έχω has impf. ειχον. ει and ευ are often not changed, e.g. ευρίσκω find, impf. εύριςκον or ηύριοκον.

So if you are a knowledgeable consumer, you can buy teachings safely from Protagoras or anyone else. But if you’re not, please don’t risk what is most dear to you on a roll of the dice, for there 314 is a far greater risk in buying teachings than in buying food. When you buy food and drink from the merchant you can take each item back home from the store in its own container and before you ingest it into your body you can lay it all out and call in an expert for consultation as to what should be eaten or drunk and what not, and how much and when. So b there’s not much risk in your purchase. But you cannot carry teachings away in a separate container. You put down your money and take the teaching away in your soul by having learned it, and off you go, either helped or injured.

The scene of Xenophon's Symposium, and also that of Plato's Protagoras, is set at Callias' house.

Protagoras took it from there and said, “Young man, this is what you will get if you study with me: The very day you start, you will go home a better man, and the same thing will happen the day after. Every day, b day after day, you will get better and better.”

Looking at these things, Protagoras, I just don’t think that virtue can be taught

if someone does not possess these goods but rather their corres- ponding evils, he finds himself the object of anger, punishment, and re- proof. Among these evils are injustice, impiety, and in general everything 324 that is opposed to civic virtue. Offenses in this area are always met with anger and reproof, and the reason is clearly that this virtue is regarded as something acquired through practice and teaching. The key, Socrates, to the true significance of punishment lies in the fact that human beings consider virtue to be something acquired through training. For no one b punishes a wrong-doer in consideration of the simple fact that he has done wrong, unless one is exercising the mindless vindictiveness of a beast. Reasonable punishment is not vengeance for a past wrong— for one cannot undo what has been done—but is undertaken with a view to the future, to deter both the wrong-doer and whoever sees him being punished from c repeating the crime

It would be difficult to produce someone who could continue their education, whereas it would be easy to find a teacher for the totally unskilled. It is the same with virtue and everything else. If there is someone who is the least bit more advanced in virtue than ourselves, he is to be cherished

But the good is such a multifaceted and variable thing that, in the case of oil, it is good for the external parts of the human body c but very bad for the internal parts, which is why doctors universally forbid their sick patients to use oil in their diets except for the least bit, just enough to dispel a prepared meal’s unappetizing aroma.

Well, I have heard, anyway, that when you are instructing someone in a certain subject, you are able to speak at length, if you choose, and 335 never get off the subject, or to speak so briefly that no one could be briefer. So if you are going to converse with me, please use the latter form of expression, brevity.” “Socrates, I have had verbal contests with many people, and if I were to accede to your request and do as my opponent demanded, I would not be thought superior to anyone, nor would Protagoras be a name to be reckoned with among the Greeks.

Discussing poetry strikes me as no different from the second-rate drinking parties of the agora crowd. These people, largely uneducated and unable to entertain themselves over their wine by using their own voices to generate conversation, pay premium prices for d flute-girls and rely on the extraneous voice of the reed flute as background music for their parties. But when well-educated gentlemen drink together, you will not see girls playing the flute or the lyre or dancing, but a group that knows how to get together without these childish frivolities, convers- ing civilly no matter how heavily they are drinking.

When a poet is brought up in a discussion, almost everyone has a different opinion about what he means, and they wind up arguing about something they can never finally decide. The best people avoid such discussions and rely on their own powers of speech to entertain 348 themselves and test each other. These people should be our models. We should put the poets aside and converse directly with each other, testing the truth and our own ideas.

“Well, then, my good people: Since it has turned out that our salvation in life depends on the right choice of pleasures and pains, be they more b or fewer, greater or lesser, farther or nearer, doesn’t our salvation seem, first of all, to be measurement, which is the study of relative excess and deficiency and equality?”

Protágoras foi um sofista da Grécia Antiga, célebre por cunhar a frase:

"O homem é a medida de todas as coisas, das coisas que são, enquanto são, das coisas que não são, enquanto não são."

Protagoras is a dialogue by Plato. The main argument is between the elderly Protagoras, a celebrated Sophist, and Socrates. The discussion takes place at the home of Callias, who is host to Protagoras while he is in town, and concerns the nature of Sophists, the unity and the teachability of virtue.

While Socrates seems to have won the argument, he points to the fact that if all virtue is knowledge, it can in fact be taught. He draws the conclusion that to an observer he and Protagoras would seem as crazy, having argued at great lengths only to mutually exchanged positions with Socrates now believing that virtue can be taught and Protagoras that all virtues are one instead of his initial position (361a). Protagoras acknowledges Socrates a notable opponent in dispute while being much younger than he and predicts that he could become one of the wisest men alive.