智术师的勇敢——柏拉图《普罗塔戈拉》349d-351b绎读

在《普罗塔戈拉》中,智术师普罗塔戈拉对勇敢的理解与众不同。他为证明美德可教,并反驳苏格拉底提出的美德统一性,强行将勇敢与其他美德拆开。在他看来,有不少人虽然极不正义、不虔敬、不明智、没学识,却勇敢出众。这样的勇敢无异于僭主的"勇敢"。普罗塔戈拉公开声称自己就是智术师,并以教导美德和政治术为业,看起来像名勇敢的智识人和斗士。但智术师的勇敢着眼于追求快乐、财富和名声,而非智慧和美德,这对常人美德和非常人美德造成了双重伤害。

The Courage of the Sophist: An Interpretation of Plato's Protagoras 349d-351b

In Plato’s Protagoras,Protagoras the sophist has a rather different understanding of courage.He separates courage from other virtues for the purpose of demonstrating the teachability of virtue and refuting the unity of virtue proposed by Socrates.In his opinion,many people stand out in courage though they are extremely unjust,impious, unwise and ignorant.Nevertheless,courage of this kind is but the "courage" of the tyrant.That Protagoras openly professes himself to be a sophist and takes teaching virtue and the art of politics as his profession makes him look like a brave intellectual and fighter.However,the courage of the sophist lies in the pursuit of pleasure,wealth and fame rather than wisdom and virtue,which is harmful both to the virtue of the common and that of the uncommon.