ABSTRACT
The arguments of Euthydemus and Dionysodorus were not original to them. According to Euthydemus 286 c2-3 such arguments had been used by Protagoras of Abdera, by his associates, and by people yet earlier in date. We will have occasion to discuss Protagoras more fully when we look at the views which Plato ascribes to hirn in the Theaetetus. For the moment, let us turn to sources independent of Plato. We need not rely on Plato alone for our evidence that contemporary Greeks felt inclined to bizarre views that ruled out all possibility of falsehood. Isocrates, Helen 1, tells us that: 'some people have grown old maintaining that it is impossible to speak falsehoods, to speak in contradiction of someone, and to speak two contradicting logoi about the same subjecr matters.' Who were these people? And how and why did they maintain such things?
