Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Principal dates
- Bibliographical note
- Glossary
- Table of equivalents
- Part I Early poetry
- Part II Tragedy
- Part III History and folklore
- Part IV Philosophy and science
- Part V Sophists
- Protagoras
- Gorgias
- Prodicus
- Hippias
- Antiphon
- Thrasymachus
- Evenus
- Critias
- Lycophron
- Alcidamas
- Anonymus Iamblichi
- Dissoi Logoi
- From unknown authors
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Dissoi Logoi
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Principal dates
- Bibliographical note
- Glossary
- Table of equivalents
- Part I Early poetry
- Part II Tragedy
- Part III History and folklore
- Part IV Philosophy and science
- Part V Sophists
- Protagoras
- Gorgias
- Prodicus
- Hippias
- Antiphon
- Thrasymachus
- Evenus
- Critias
- Lycophron
- Alcidamas
- Anonymus Iamblichi
- Dissoi Logoi
- From unknown authors
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Summary
The Dissoi Logoi is an anonymous treatise of uncertain date, though most scholars accept a date around 400 (see n. 321 below). It is written in the Doric dialect, a kind of Greek spoken primarily in the Peloponnesus and parts of Sicily and southern Italy. This may indicate the author's provenance, or perhaps that he is writing for an audience that spoke Doric. Speculation about the author's identity has been wide-ranging, but no suggestion has gained much support. The work shows the possible influence of Protagoras (who wrote Antilogiae or Counter-Arguments), Hippias, Gorgias, Socrates, and others, and may be the work of an unknown student of one of these.
Good and Bad
1. [1] Double arguments (dissoi logoi) are put forward by intellectuals in Greece concerning good and bad. Some say that good is one thing and bad another, while others say that the same thing can be both, and that something may be good for some but bad for others or sometimes good and sometimes bad for the same person.
[2] I myself agree with the latter, and my investigation will begin with human life and its concern with food and drink and sex; for these things are bad for someone sick but good for someone healthy who needs them. [3] Moreover, lack of control in these things is bad for those who lack control but good for those who sell them and make a profit.
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- Information
- Early Greek Political Thought from Homer to the Sophists , pp. 296 - 308Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995