PHIL 2070 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Universalizability, Socratic Method, Nicomachean Ethics
23 Oct 2017
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The story socrates tells involves the presence in athens of the famous sophist protagoras, at the time the most famous thinker in greece. Socrates relates how he is awoken by a friend, Hippocrates, who is excited by the arrival of protagoras, and who intends to become protagoras"s disciple. But when socrates questions hippocrates as to what he hopes to learn from protagoras, The two set out to ask protagoras himself exactly what it is he teaches. The main dialogue begins when socrates starts to question protagoras about what he teaches his pupils. Protagoras asserts that he educates his students in politics and in how to manage personal affairs. But socrates questions whether this is really a subject that can be taught. Protagoras responds by giving a long speech about the creation of the world. Virtue is indeed teachable, argues protagoras, because political systems are founded on the basis that all citizens can possess virtue.
