ABSTRACT
In Plato’s Euthydemus, Socrates twice engages with Clinias in hopes of convincing him to “love wisdom and have a care for virtue.” In three other passages, the brothers Euthydemus and Dionysodorus ostensibly try to do the same. Socrates leads what scholars call “protreptics,” and the brothers lead the “eristics.” The second protreptic reaches an impasse when Socrates and Clinias fail to specify the special object of knowledge that the statesman both discovers and uses to benefit the citizens (i.e. make them happy). This chapter offers a new interpretation of their puzzlement and shows that the Euthydemus has internal resources for the puzzle’s resolution. It draws attention to Clinias’ overlooked reference to the dialectician, Socrates’ introduction of the Form of the Beautiful in the third eristic, and Socrates’ closing supposition that the statesman and philosopher might be the same person.
