ABSTRACT
Tradition has been rather less than fair to Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, who, even if he has no other claim to fame, deserves to be remembered for the remarkable achievement of holding his own in an encounter with that champion dialectician, Socrates. The scene is set, and Socrates is quick to respond. He tries to entangle Thrasymachus in contradictions, making him admit that the powerful may be in error about what is useful to them. In terms of language and the meaning of words alone, the relevance of Plato’s ideas on justice seems strongest and most evident in political theory. Thrasymachus was the first to state his case. In all human societies, there are positions that enable their bearers to exercise power. Equilibrium theories differ greatly in the degree to which their basic concepts are reified. There is no intrinsic objection to an analysis of society in which power figures as an agent of constraint.
