2 h 21 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if winning every argument means losing sight of the truth?
At the Lyceum in Athens, two visiting brothers promise to teach virtue faster than anyone alive. Euthydemus and Dionysodorus turn their attention to young Cleinias, using slippery words and clever traps to put on a show. Socrates tells his friend Crito about this strange afternoon, where a question about learning becomes a contest over meaning.
In Plato's funny, sharp dialogue, Socrates offers another way to think. He speaks gently with Cleinias, asking what wisdom gives us and how knowledge helps us use good things well. Beside the brothers' verbal tricks, his honest questions make the stakes clear: does education teach us to defeat others, or to seek what is true?
What you’ll discover
- Two teachers on show Meet brothers whose promise to teach virtue leads straight into a dazzling display of argument.
- Words with shifting meanings Watch a question about who learns become a trap built from a double meaning.
- Socrates at his gentlest Follow his patient exchange with Cleinias as they explore why wisdom matters.
- Logic pushed toward absurdity Test the brothers' startling claim that saying something false is impossible.
- Knowledge worth looking for Consider what it takes not merely to gain good things, but to use them well.
Is it for you?
This is for readers who enjoy sharp argument, comedy, and the question of what education is for. It suits anyone curious about logical fallacies. If you want a steady, systematic theory, the winding structure may feel less suited to you.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two brothers promise to teach virtue
- Playing with the word learn
- Wisdom is the only good worth seeking
- Tricks that turn words against sense
- No falsehood and no contradiction
- The search that goes in a circle
- Philosophy judged by its false practitioners
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- Large print hardcover
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Language: English
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 7
Two brothers promise to teach virtue
The book opens with a short frame. Crito meets Socrates and asks who the man was that Socrates was talking with the day before. Socrates answers by retelling the whole episode from memory. He had been sitting alone in the changing room of the Lyceum when two newcomers walked in with a crowd of followers.
These are the brothers Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, originally from Chios. They had lived in Thurii, a colony in southern Italy, before being driven out and wandering Greece. Socrates says they were once expert fighters in heavy armor and then became masters of arguing in law courts. Now they have found a third skill, which is arguing in any way at all, and refuting any claim whatever, true or false.
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What is Plato's Euthydemus about?
It tells how Socrates meets two sophist brothers, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, who claim to teach virtue through clever arguments. Socrates contrasts their word tricks with honest questioning and shows that wisdom is the one true good.
Who are Euthydemus and Dionysodorus?
They are two brothers from Chios who travelled Greece as teachers. They had once taught fighting in armor and law court speaking. In the dialogue they teach eristic, the art of winning arguments by refuting any claim.
What is eristic in Plato?
Eristic is argument aimed only at winning, whatever the truth. Plato sets it against dialectic, the cooperative search for truth. The brothers use eristic, while Socrates shows the other way.
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