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badly, a good one produces good thoughts. Some mistakenly call such “better” appearances “truer,” but I merely “better” or “worse” but not “truer”. Wise men, therefore, are they who, like the physicians of bodies, or the cultivators of plants, train men to perceive aright. And the sage or ‘sophist’ performs a similar service also for cities; wherefore he earns his pay.
‘(3) We see, therefore, that in a sense, though no one can be said to opine falsely, some are wiser than others.’ The Speech concludes with a grave admonition to ‘Socrates’ to cease from arguing disputatiously, and points out the harm this does by disgusting people with philosophy, and the perils of arguing from the current usage of words which only lead to puzzles.
IV.
In its whole tone and contents this Speech seems to me exactly what we should expect from an attempt at authentic reproduction. The anti-intellectualism, the emphasis on the practical side, the defence of pay for intellectual work, the didactic tone, the high moral seriousness (which Plato attests also in the Protagoras), the disgust with the endless and often aimless ‘dialectics’ of the Greek boulevardier, the consciousness of the dangers of verbal traps, these are all characteristics we might expect to find in the veteran teacher whose mission it was to guide the education of a democratic age.
Why then should we hesitate to attribute to him also what is the cardinal point of his defence, viz., the distinction between the formal claim to truth which every judgment makes and its value? This point is made lucidly, repeatedly and emphatically, and if my paraphrase has brought it out still more, the reason is merely that, thanks to Plato, most philosophers have become involved in so dense an intellectualistic bias that anything which runs counter to it has to be made very clear indeed. But the distinction is quite clearly in the Greek.
It is also quite clearly the complete answer to the attacks on the humanism, miscalled the ‘subjectivism,’ of Protagoras, and the solution of the problem of a common truth. It explains
