The Coherence of Thrasymachus

Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 53:33-63 (2017)
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Abstract

In Book I of the Republic, or so I shall argue, Plato gives us a glimpse of sheer horror. In the character, beliefs, and desires of Thrasymachus, Plato aims to personify some of the most diabolical dangers that lurk in human nature. In this way, the role that Thrasymachus plays for Plato is akin to the role that for Hobbes is played by the bellum omnium contra omnes, the war of all against all, which would allegedly be the inevitable result of a "state of nature", where human beings have no government to terrorize them into obedience. It is also akin to the role that for Kant is played by the "radical evil" that is allegedly an indelible feature of human nature itself. As I shall try to show, the desires that characterize Thrasymachus are of the kind that are described in Book IX as "lawless" desires, desire of the wild insane kind that dominate the tyrannical soul; and his beliefs systematically reflect these desires, in a way that has its own hideously coherent logic.

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Ralph Wedgwood
University of Southern California

Citations of this work

El inmoralismo de Trasímaco y la pleonexía.Javier Echenique - 2022 - Anales Del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía 39 (2):305-315.
El inmoralismo de Trasímaco y la pleonexía.Javier Echeñique Sosa - 2022 - Anales Del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía 39 (2):305-315.
Thrasymachus of Chalcedon on the Platonic stage.Dorota Zygmuntowicz - 2019 - Journal of Ancient Philosophy 13 (1):1-39.

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References found in this work

The Virtues of Thrasymachus. Chappell - 1993 - Phronesis 38 (1):1-17.
The incoherence of Thrasymachus.Stephen Everson - 1998 - Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 16:99-131.
Callicles and Thrasymachus.Rachel Barney - 2012 - In Ed Zalta (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford, CA: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Thrasymachus --- or Plato?Joseph P. Maguire - 1971 - Phronesis 16 (2):142 - 163.
Wise Guys and Smart Alecks in Republic 1 and 2.Roslyn Weiss - 2007 - In G. R. F. Ferrari (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Plato’s R Epublic. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 90--115.

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