I DEALT WITH THIS TOPIC briefly twelve years ago in an introduction to the Protagoras,' designed for the use of beginners in philosophy. The medium tempted me to simplifications which I have since had occasion to regret. But I have no great confidence that if I had then dealt with the topic in a more leisurely and thorough way I would have managed to avoid the blemishes of that earlier treatment. For I would not have had the benefit of the discussions that were to follow. More was to be contributed on this topic by English-speaking scholars in the following nine years than had appeared in the preceding forty.2 From criticisms of my own views, and from new ideas that have appeared in this literature I have learned more than I could possibly acknowledge in detail.3 Though they have not altered my basic interpretation of the Socratic position, they have led me to understand it more clearly and at a deeper level. With this help I have made a fresh study of the main text in which the Socratic thesis is advanced and defended: Protagoras 352A358D, whose results I now wish to present.
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Gregory Vlastos (1969) studied this question.