Euthydemus - Plato

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Résumé :
Euthydemus is Plato's defense of Socratic dialogue as a means to pursue truth. In Euthydemus, Plato has Socrates engage in a conversation with the title character and his brother Dionysodorus, both famous Sophists. They are representative of a type of argument, which Plato calls 'eristic', that emphasizes verbal trickery in order to humiliate your opponent and win your debate. This is contrasted with Socrates' dialectic, where words are a means of discerning reality, not gaining victory. In the process, Plato makes a case for the Socratic method as a means of educating youth, something he was attempting to do in his own newly-opened Academy. Presented in Plato's usual dramatic style, Euthydemus is simultaneously an engaging read and a passionate pedagogical manifesto....

Biographie:
Plato (c.428 to c.347 bc) was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the pivotal figure in the history of Ancient Greek and Western philosophy, along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle. Plato was the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy. Plato is also considered the founder of Western political philosophy. His most famous contribution is the theory of Forms known by pure reason, in which Plato presents a solution to the problem of universals known as Platonism (also ambiguously called either Platonic realism or Platonic idealism. He is also the namesake of Platonic love and the Platonic solids.His own most decisive philosophical influences are usually thought to have been along with Socrates, the pre-Socratics Pythagoras, Heraclitus and Parmenides, although few of his predecessors' works remain extant and much of what we know about these figures today derives from Plato himself. Unlike the work of nearly all of his contemporaries, Plato's entire body of work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years. Although their popularity has fluctuated over the years, the works of Plato have never been without readers since the time they were written....

Sommaire:
Euthydemus is Plato's defense of Socratic dialogue as a means to pursue truth. In Euthydemus, Plato has Socrates engage in a conversation with the title character and his brother Dionysodorus, both famous Sophists. They are representative of a type of argument, which Plato calls 'eristic', that emphasizes verbal trickery in order to humiliate your opponent and win your debate. This is contrasted with Socrates' dialectic, where words are a means of discerning reality, not gaining victory. In the process, Plato makes a case for the Socratic method as a means of educating youth, something he was attempting to do in his own newly-opened Academy. Presented in Plato's usual dramatic style, Euthydemus is simultaneously an engaging read and a passionate pedagogical manifesto....