Embodied Perspective vs. Objective Measurement: Rationality in Plato's Protagoras

Abstract

I investigate what metaphors are most apt for understanding rational inquiry, arguing that this is Plato's point in the Protagoras. I suggest that Plato's Protagoras offers us a spatial account of the teaching of virtue, understanding the teaching of virtue as if it were a journey. By contrast, Socrates offers us an objective account of the teaching of virtue, understanding acquiring virtue as if it were the mere accumulation of finite goods. Plato shows quite dramatically why both accounts are flawed, and I argue that Plato's use of various literary devices to frame the dialogue amounts to a subtle redirection of the focus of the dialogue. Ostensibly a dialogue about whether virtue is teachable, I claim the Protagoras is actually about the pitfalls of making rational inquiry an adversarial process. In line with recent discoveries in cognitive science, I conclude that objectivity and perspectivity are complementary methods of our human understanding.

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Tim Rohrer, Dept of Philosophy. University of Oregon

E-mail: rohrer@darkwing.uoregon.edu