Protagoras

In a lively Athenian gathering at Callias’ house, Socrates and a curious youth named Hippocrates seek out the renowned sophist Protagoras. The conversation quickly turns to a timeless question: can the art of living—justice, prudence, and other virtues—be taught, or are they innate gifts reserved for the few?

Protagoras replies with a vivid allegory of Prometheus and Hermes, insisting that virtues are as shareable as any craft. He argues that citizens already distinguish skilled artisans from the unskilled, yet they do not separate the capable from the incapable in public affairs, because political virtue is a common, though varying, endowment. The dialogue sketches how education, punishment, and social customs all point to virtue as something that can be cultivated.

Socrates then presses the instructor to clarify whether virtues are a single unified whole or a collection of distinct parts. Their exchange spirals into a probing examination of justice, holiness, and temperance, revealing how even seemingly obvious definitions can lead to surprising contradictions.