this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
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There are repeated dubious arguments that would struggle to convince a middle-schooler. "Professionals are usually better at their jobs than part-timers. Therefore, it's better to do only one thing ever or else you won't be as good at it as someone who does. This is a definitely and essentially true point that we will use as a basis for numerous further claims on either politics or metaphysics, depending on your reading."
"Oh yes, Socrates-as-a-stand-in-for-Plato, that's SO correct! You're SO smart and handsome and funny and no one could ever beat your humility either!"
"Bandits don't betray each other, and loyalty is just. Therefore, even bandits have an essential sense of justice, and justice is necessary for all prosperity. ~~Cheaters~~ unjust men never win in the end!"
"God, your dick is so big too, Plato-I mean, Socrates! Please fuck my wife in the next breeding lottery!"
Loled at the last one, but also I think it's wrong to conflate any specific argument that Socrates makes with Plato's argument in any of the dialogues. The dialogues are presented as dialogues for a reason. If an interlocutor fails to push back adequately, it doesn't mean that the argument is beyond reproach. It might just be revealing a contemporarily widely understood value, or it's inviting the reader to engage with the dialogue. The reader is then challenging Socrates' notion that knowledge is hierarchical by taking on a presumed intellectual authority in Socrates. Given Plato's body of work, I think the fallibility of arguments in the dialogues are oriented towards the idea that we have imperfect knowledge and imperfect arguments, and sometimes people fail to catch and respond to these in elenchus. Plato could just be getting us to engage in the act of philosophy.