The Fragility of Nihilism: Virtue, Techné, and the Nature of Self Knowledge in Plato’s Gorgias and Protagoras

Abstract

Through interpretive readings of Plato’s Protagoras and Gorgias I demonstrate how the character of Socrates manages to reveal a deep concern for virtue in even his most apparently nihilistic interlocutors. I suggest that these dialogues ask us to consider the possibility of a universal human concern for goodness that transcends or collapses the nomos/phusis distinction––one that must be diligently, even courageously attended to if our lives are to be effectively applied towards a virtuous ideal of self and society. To conclude I contrast my readings with those that see Plato as the stern rationalist––the unwavering proponent of techné––and I open the question of what knowledge of virtue and ..