Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi (Jan 2017)
A Research on The Hedonism in Plato’s Protagoras
Abstract
Plato’s method of treating the pleasure theme in Protatogas recently has been discussed by various significant researchers, neverthless they couldn’t have been reached an agreement whether Plato is a hedonist or anti-hedonist in this dialogue. The earliest dialogue which Plato discussed pleasure, is Protagoras. Due to the identification pleasure with the good one, it has been thought that Plato had a hedonist side. Then, his method of treating the pleasure in later dialogues –Gorgias, Phaedo, Republic, Philebus and Timaeus- will appear as an attitude of antihedonist. In this paper, starting from the premise ‘pleasure is good’, we will scrutinize these questions: Does Socrates really accept hedonism? If he accepts, which way it brings him hedonists? If not, which context he uses the pleasure in this dialogue?By this way, intended to be understood the role of pleasure in Socrates’ debate.
