The dialogue Protagoras features a gathering of intellectuals in the house of Callias, a rich, and later notorious, Athenian. Socrates challenges the foremost professor of the group, Protagoras of Abdera, to explain to a would-be pupil what the young man would learn from studying with Protagoras. ‘He’ll be a better man each day he studies with me.’—‘But better at what?’—‘At public affairs; he’ll achieve success in political debate and action.’ The virtue of the citizen, then, is what Protagoras professes to teach, but Socrates wonders if it is teachable. After all, the democratic assembly at Athens recognizes experts in military and technical matters, but none, apparently, in political virtue, since all (and not a few ‘experts’) are allowed their say on political affairs.
The myth of the origin of virtue is the first part of Protagoras’ lengthy reply. He skilfully negotiates the traps Socrates has laid for him. To defend his own profession he must argue that virtue is teachable, but he cannot risk criticizing the democratic policy of allowing everyone to speak on political affairs. His solution: to claim that virtue can be and is taught, but that in a civilized society all possess it through teaching. His myth relates how man, who missed out on endowment with natural defences such as swiftness of foot or a tough skin, was given fire and technical skill by Prometheus. But these were insufficient for man to thrive and defend himself against wild beasts as long as strife persisted between men. Only a further gift, this time from Zeus, saves man from destruction: justice (dikē) and conscience (aidōs). On Zeus’ instruction his messenger Hermes gave these not just to a few but to all men; and this civic virtue, the foundation of civil society, is man’s salvation (322c–d).
In the remainder of his speech Protagoras will underline the myth’s meaning. Athenians are correct to regard all men as having virtue, not by nature but through teaching. Who are its teachers? All who in civil society take part in bringing up children: mothers, nurses, and neighbours. This socialization is both a product of and a prerequisite for civil society; hence in the myth it is represented as a late gift from Zeus, not one with which man was naturally endowed but one acquired only after a period of unsuccessful attempts to live in groups with mutual co-operation.
So Protagoras describes virtue as an induced pattern of prosocial behaviour, found widespread – though in different degrees – in society. In contrast, Socrates will go on to develop an account of virtue which makes it identical with knowledge or expertise, the knowledge which is a matter of calculation of goods and evils (equated, rather surprisingly, with pleasures and pains). Protagoras, who in his Great Speech had defended the claim that virtue is teachable, resists the account that makes it the kind of expertise described by Socrates. Socrates, who had purported to doubt that it was teachable, makes it a kind of expertise – and hence teachable – available only to a few, and desirable as a good to the possessor: a clear contrast with Protagoras’ view by which virtue is widespread in society and taught by all to all precisely because ‘everyone is eager to teach the next man and tell him what is right and lawful’ (327b).
L. B.
320c ‘Once upon a time there were just the gods;* mortal beings did
d not yet exist. And when the appointed time came for them to come into being too, the gods moulded them within the earth, mixing together earth and fire and their compounds. And when they were about to bring them out into the light of day, they appointed Prometheus and Epimetheus to equip each kind with the powers it required. Epimetheus asked Prometheus to let him assign the powers himself. “Once I have assigned them,” he said, “you can inspect them”; so Prometheus agreed, and
e Epimetheus assigned the powers. To some creatures he gave strength, but not speed, while he equipped the weaker with speed. He gave some claws or horns, and for those without them he devised some other power for their preservation. To those whom he made of small size, he gave winged flight, or a
321a dwelling underground; to those that he made large, he gave their size itself as a protection. And in the same way he distributed all the other things, balancing one against another. This he did to make sure that no species should be wiped out; and when he had made them defences against mutual destruction, he devised for them protection against the elements, clothing them with thick hair and tough skins, so as to withstand cold and heat, and also to serve each kind as their own natural bedding when they lay down to sleep. And he shod
b some with hooves, and others with tough, bloodless skin. Then he assigned different kinds of food to the different species; some were to live on pasture, others on the fruits of trees, others on roots, and some he made to prey on other creatures for their food. These he made less prolific, but to those on whom they preyed he gave a large increase, as a means of preserving the species.
‘Now Epimetheus, not being altogether wise, didn’t notice
c that he had used up all the powers on the non-rational creatures; so last of all he was left with humankind, quite unprovided for, and he was at a loss what to do. As he was racking his brains Prometheus came to inspect the distribution, and saw the other creatures well provided for in every way, while man was naked and unshod, without any covering for his bed or any fangs or claws; and already the appointed day was at hand, on which man too had to come out of the earth to the light of day. Prometheus was at his wits’ end to find a means of preservation for mankind, so he stole from
d Hephaestus and Athena their technical skill along with the use of fire– for it was impossible for anyone to acquire or make use of that skill without fire– and that was what he gave to man. That is how man acquired his practical skill, but he did not yet have skill in running a city; Zeus kept watch over that. Prometheus had no time to penetrate the citadel of Zeus -moreover the guards of Zeus were terrible – but he made his way by stealth into the workshop which Athena and Hephaestus shared for the practice of their arts, and stole
e Hephaestus’ art of working with fire, and the other art which
322a Athena possesses,* and gave them to men. And as a result man was well provided with resources for his life, but afterwards, so it is said, thanks to Epimetheus, Prometheus paid the penalty for theft.
‘Since man thus shared in a divine gift, first of all through his kinship with the gods, he was the only creature to worship them, and he began to erect altars and images of the gods. Then he soon developed the use of articulate speech and of words, and discovered how to make houses and clothes and
b shoes and bedding and how to get food from the earth.* Thus equipped, men lived at the beginning in scattered units, and there were no cities; so they began to be destroyed by the wild beasts, since they were altogether weaker. Their practical art was sufficient to provide food, but insufficient for fighting against the beasts – for they did not yet possess the art of running a city, of which the art of warfare is part – and so they sought to come together and save themselves by founding cities. Now when they came together, they treated each other with injustice, not possessing the art of running a city, so they scattered and began to be destroyed once again. So
c Zeus, fearing that our race would be wholly wiped out, sent Hermes bringing conscience and justice to mankind, to be the principles of organization of cities and the bonds of friendship. Now Hermes asked Zeus about the manner in which he was to give conscience and justice to men: “Shall I distribute these in the same way as the arts? These are distributed thus: one doctor is sufficient for many laymen, and so with the other experts. Shall I give justice and conscience to men in that way too, or distribute them to all?”
d ‘“To all,” said Zeus, “and let all share in them; for cities could not come into being, if only a few shared in them as in the other arts. And lay down on my authority a law that he who cannot share in conscience and justice is to be killed as a plague on the city.” So that, Socrates, is why when there is a question about how to do well in carpentry or any other expertise, everyone including the Athenians thinks it right that only a few should give advice, and won’t put up with advice from anyone else, as you say – and quite right, too, in my view-but
e when it comes to consideration of how to do well in running the city, which must proceed entirely through justice and 323a soundness of mind, they are right to accept advice from anyone, since it is incumbent on everyone to share in that sort of excellence, or else there can be no city at all.’*