Hedonism in Plato's Protagoras and Gorgias
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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1982 Hedonism in Plato's Protagoras and Gorgias. Richard Alan Bidgood University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Bidgood, Richard Alan, "Hedonism in Plato's Protagoras and Gorgias." (1982). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 2204. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/2204 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HEDONISM IN PLATO'S PROTAGORAS AND GORGIAS A Dissertation Presented By RICHARD ALAN BIDGOOD Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 1982 Philosophy , , , 225 Grube , G . M . A . Thought . Metheun & Co., LTD, London 1935. , "The Structual Unity " of the Protaaoraa . claflairai - Quarterly, voi. 27 , pp. 203 207 , 1933 . Gulley, Norman, "Socrates' Thesis at Protaaoraa 358b-c", Phoenix . Vol. 25, pp. 118-123, 1971. Hackforth, R. , "Hedonism in Plato's Protagnraa . ciasairai - Quarterly, voi. 22 , pp. 39 42 , 1928 . Irwin, Terence, Plato ' s Moral Theory . Oxford University Press, 1978. Keyt, David, "Plato's Paradox that the Immutable is the Unknowlable ", Philosophical Quarterly Vol. 19, pp. 1-14, 1969. Klosko, George, "The Technical Conception of Virtue", Journal of the History ^ Philosophy . Vol. 19, 95-102, 1981. Levinson, Ronald, In Defense of Plato . Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1953. Lodge, R. C., glato ' S IhfiiirY o£ Ethics . Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., LTD, NY, 1928. Moore, G. E., Principia Ethica . Cambridge University Press, 1976. O' Brian, Michael, "The 'Fallacy' in Protagoras 349d-350c", Transactions Procedinas of t]is American ghilolcqical Association U, Vol. 92, pp. 408-417, 1961. Oldfield, Edward, "An Approach to a Theory of Intrinsic Value" Philosohical Studies . Vol. 3, pp. 233-249, 1977. Plato, Platonis Opera . Edited by John Burnet, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1965. Jowett, Jefferson Press, , The Dialogues Translated by B. 1911. Commentary by Terence Irwin, , The Gorgias Translated with Oxford University Press, London, 1980. Commentary by E. R. Dodds , The Gorgias Translated with Oxford University Press, London, 1966. 226 / The Protagoras . Translated with Coiranentary by C. C. W. Taylor, Oxford University Press, London, 1976. / The Protagoras and Meno . Translated by W. K. C., Guthrie, Penguin Books, London, 1979. Quinn, Warren, "Theories of Intrinsic Value", Amerioan PhilOSPhical Quarterly . Vol. 11, pp. 123-132, 1974. Ritchie, David, Plato . C. Scribner's Sons, NY, 1902. Santas, Gerisamos, "Plato's Protagoras and Explanations of Weakness", in Ihs Philosophy sif Socrates . Edited by G. Vlastos, Doubleday & Co. Inc., NY, 1971. / SQCXates ; Philosohy in Plato ' s Early Dialogues . U. Routledge & Kegan Paul, Boston, 1979. " Sesonske, A., "Hedonism in the Protagoras . Journal of the fliatory of Philoaophy, vol. i, pp. 73-79, 1963 . Shorey, Paul, The Unity Plato ' s Thought . University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1960. " Sullivan, J. P., "The Hedonism in Plato’s Protagoras . Phronesis . Vol. 6, pp. 10-28, 1961. Taylor, A. E., Plato; The Man and His Work . Meridian Books, NY, 1956. Terdcku, Jussi, "The Evaluation of Pleasure in Plato's Ethics, Acta Philosophica Fennica. Helsinki. 1956. Thompson. F. E.. A Syntax of Attic Qxfifils, Longmen & Co., NY, 1907. Vlastos, Gregory, Introduction to the Protagoras . Bobbs-Merrill Co. Inc., NY, 1956. Vol. 23, 71-88, , "Socrates on Akrasia", Phoenix pp. 1969. American Philo lQ.gy. Vol. , "Was Polus Refuted?", Journal Qt 88, pp. 454-460, 1967. Wolz, Henry, "Hedonism in the Protagoras". Journal af the History 1967. of Philosophy . Vol. 5, pp. 205-217, Zeyl, Donald, D., "Socrates and Hedonism — Protagoras 250-269, 1980. 351b-358d, Phronesis . Vol. 25, pp. © Richard Alan Bidgood All Rights Reserved ii I HEDONISM IN PLATO'S PROTAGORAS AND GORGIAS A Dissertation Presented By RICHARD ALAN BIDGOOD Approved as to Style euid Content by; Gareth B. Matthews, Chairperson of Committee Fred Feldman, Member Cyntniak Freeland, Member o 't i ‘I S Geor^tcde Dim<4:X, Member J' /) ' - i y y — Michael Jubien, Acting Head Department of Philosophy TO MY PARENTS MILDRED AND EARLE BIDGOOD IV PREFACE ^ first became interested in the Protagoras as an undergraduate when I read it in a Greek class. I had by then taken a course or two in which I read some of the other Platonic dialogues, and I had formed some sort of notion of Socrates' character and his general philosophical project. I had what probably amounted to the standard picture of Socrates one gets from reading the Apology and the Crito and the Euthyphro . He struck me as something of an austere character, pursuing truth and avoiding pleasure, someone who closely resembled the hero of the Gorgias in his insistence oh a division between pleasure and moral virtue. So with this picture I read the Protagoras and found it puzzling, and a little disturbing. Especially puzzling to me was the section in which Socrates appears to be airguing that really what we should be pursuing is pleasure. I didn't think much about the Protagoras and Gorgias after that until I spent a summer a few years ago reading Terence Irwin's Plato ' s Moral Theory with Gary Matthews and Cynthia Freeland. There Irwin raises that same problem of fitting the Protagoras with the Gorgias . and attempts to fit both dialogues into a single theory, which is both clever and provocative. Irwin's theory, however, seemed to me to be wrong on a number of V . fundamental issues. So, when I was discussing thesis topics with my committee, a thesis in which I examined the hedonism of the two dialogues as well as Irwin’s views on the subject seemed natural Once I started looking around in the literature, I found that most of the discussions pointed in one of two directions They either looked at the role of hedonism in the dialogues (raising questions of interpretation) or they examined the various arguemnts involving hedonism ( raising questions of formulation ) Since both questions interested me, I decided to pursue both. On the one hand, I have reviewed closely many of the attempts in the literature to discover Plato’s purpose in introducing hedonism to the Protagoras discussion. On the other hand, especially in the latter chapters, I have tried to formulate and evaluate the alleged arguments for and about hedonism in the Protagoras and Gorgias . Throughout the year and a half it has taken me to write the thesis, I have incurred many debts, from friends and family, colleagues and teachers. I, of course, owe much to my parents for their financial and moral support, even when they weren't quite sure what they were supporting. I also owe much to my sister Barbara and her family for their generosity and encouragement. They have put up with my odd priorities and oddly timed trips to Massachusetts ( usually in their car ) on and off VI for this whole summer. Over the past months Tom and Suzi Ryckman have often rearranged their schedules and habits to accomodate my weekly visits to Amherst, even as Tom was finishing his own dissertation and they were preparing to move to Iowa. I hope I can be as much help when Tom comes to defend. My colleagues at Franklin and Marshall College have been very helpful in allowing me time to write. I have especially enjoyed the friendship of Glenn Ross with whom I have spent many pleasant hours formulating strategies for completing a dissertation during one's first year of teaching. Needless to say, I owe much to my teachers, particularly those on my committee: Fred Feldman, Cynthia Freeland and George Dimock, who often refused to allow me merely to meet my standards, but prodded me to try to meet theirs. My thesis is much the better for that prodding. My greatest debt and the one I am happiest to acknowledge is to my director, Gary Matthews. I can only guess how many hours he has spent reading and commenting on my thesis in its various forms. Much of what is good in here I owe to his comments and the discussions we had to and from string qucurtet concerts. I especially thank him for his encouragement during the times when the project seemed endless. vxi ) ABSTRACT Hedonism in Plato's Protaaorag and Goraiag September 1982 Richard Alan Bidgood, B.A., Franklin and Marshall College M.A., Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Directed by; Professor Gareth B. Matthews In this dissertation, I focus on the hedonism in Plato's and Goraias . paying close, but not exclusive, attention to the recent discussion by Terence Irwin in his Plato ’ S HQi:aI Theory and his translation of and commentary on the Goraias . I argue that there is a genuine ethical hedonism discussed in the Protagoras . but that we are not forced by considerations in the Protagoras to ascribe that hedonism to Socrates. Furthermore, I argue, contra Irwin, that Socrates is not committed to hedonism by his earlier ethical views. In fact, I suggest, hedonism plays no real role in the logical structure of the main argument in the dialogue ( namely the argument against Protagoras for the unity of the virtues . In the Gorgias Socrates is clearly out to attack some version of hedonism, this attack consists of two arguments: one attempting to show that pleasure has a property which goodness viii . lacks, the other attempting to show that the identification of goodness and pleasure has unacceptable ethical consequences When properly formulated, neither argument is successful against hedonism, but at best only against an identification of the good person with the pleased person, a doctrine which is logically independent from the first.