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Euthydemus (dialogue)

Euthydemus (Greek: Εὐθύδημος, Euthydemes), written c. 384 BC, is a dialogue by Plato which satirizes what Plato presents as the logical fallacies of the Sophists.[1] In it, Socrates describes to his friend Crito a visit he and various youths paid to two brothers, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, both of whom were prominent Sophists and pankrationists from Chios and Thurii.

The Euthydemus contrasts Socratic argumentation and education with the methods of Sophism, to the detriment of the latter. Throughout the dialogue, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus continually attempt to ensnare Socrates with what are presented as deceptive and meaningless arguments, primarily to demonstrate their professed philosophical superiority.


As in many of the Socratic dialogues, the two Sophists against whom Socrates argues were indeed real people. Euthydemus was somewhat famous at the time the dialogue was written, and is mentioned several times by both Plato and Aristotle. Likewise, Dionysodorus is mentioned by Xenophon.

Socrates

Crito

Clinias

Euthydemus

Dionysodorus

Ctesippus

1804

Thomas Taylor

1892 *

Benjamin Jowett

1905 *

Edwin Gifford

1924 *

Walter Rangeley Maitland Lamb

1987

Robin Waterfield

Rosamond Kent Sprague, 1993

Gregory A. McBrayer and Mary P. Nichols, 2011

*

at Standard Ebooks

Euthydemus, in a collection of Plato's Dialogues

Original Greek (with English translation)

Works related to Euthydemus at Wikisource

Approaching Plato: A Guide to the Early and Middle Dialogues

Good and bad philosophers in Plato's Euthydemus

public domain audiobook at LibriVox

Euthydemus