Thrasymachus: Biography, Thought and Works

Thrasymachus He was an ancient philosopher of the Greek Sophistic school, who lived around 459-400 BC. C. It is known that he was born in Caledonia, present-day Turkey, on the banks of the Bosphorus, from where he traveled to Greece. There he stood out as a teacher of rhetoric and speech writer, with which he amassed a great fortune.

Very little is known about his work, except for appeals made by other Greek philosophers. Only fragments of his speeches survive from his work. He is best known for his mention in the book The Republic from Plato : is appointed during a meeting with Socrates in which both develop a dialogue about the nature of justice.

For Thrasymachus, justice is only the advantage of the strongest. The ideas of Thrasymachus have often been seen as the first fundamental critique of moral values. His thinking is considered as a precursor of Nietzsche's ideas.

Biography

There is very little information regarding the precise years of birth and death of the Thrasymachus philosopher. From citations in the works of other ancient Greek thinkers, it is believed that he was born in the year 470 a. C.

Neither is anything known about the reasons that motivated the trip of Thrasymachus from Macedonia to Greece: whether it was for work or studies.

Cicero mentions it several times citing Gorgias, which seems to imply that Thrasymachus and Gorgias were contemporaries. According to Dionisio, Thrasymachus was younger than Lysias, who lived between 445 and 380 BC. C., but Aristotle places it between Tisias and Theodore, although it does not establish precise dates.

Aristophanes mocks him in his work The Caterers , whose game was played in 427; therefore, he had to teach in Athens during those years. Even in one of the surviving fragments of his discourse, he refers to King Archelaus of Macedonia (413-399 BC).

This allows us to infer that Thrasymachus was very active during the last three decades of the fifth century BC. C.

Thrasymacus taught rhetoric and wrote speeches for others, which allowed him to obtain a great fortune and live in opulence.

Like all the other sophists of his time, he charged large sums of money in fees. In addition, his good education was a characteristic of the rich and famous people of that time.

Death

Due to the lack of precise records, historians have not been able to determine the exact date of death of Thrasymachus. However, the thesis that he died of natural causes is accepted.

At that time, the strange habit of writing biographies about prominent personalities who died in tragic circumstances was common; that is, executed, by suicide or on the battlefield.

Due to the fact that the death of Thrasymachus has not been documented, it is believed that he died of natural causes.

It is also suspected that this thinker might not have aroused enough interest among the ancient biographers, among other reasons because he was contemporary with figures such as Socrates, more prominent than he and captivating for the masses.

Thought

The ideas of Thrasymachus have greatly influenced contemporary ethical and political theory. Although there is no agreement on the interpretation of the arguments of Thrasymachus described in the work The Republic , his ideas are considered as the first critical reference to moral values.

Thrasymachus belonged to the sophistic current along with Protagoras, Gorgias, Callicles, Hippias, Pródico and Critias. In the first book of The Republic attacks Socrates' argument that justice is an important good.

On the contrary, he argues that on a sufficiently large scale,"injustice (...) is stronger, freer and more masterful than justice". Like Callicles, he argues that justice finds its foundation in force.

Ideas about justice

His reasoning about justice focuses on these three ideas:

1- Justice is only the advantage of the strongest.

2- Justice is actually the advantage of another.

3- Justice is obedience to the laws.

Three questions arise from the three statements. Why follow the rules that suit the politically strongest? Or why should these actions serve the interests of others and not their own?

On the other hand, because the ruling elite is stronger in all respects, the weakest tend to be more likely to be punished for violating any law.

They are in a greater state of defenselessness in the face of forced confiscation of property, forced slavery or the loss of freedom through imprisonment.

In his exposition to Socrates, Thrasymachus expresses three inferences: the first is that justice gives a greater advantage to the stronger, the second that justice is an invention of powerful rulers (whom it never harms), and the third indicates that justice is at the service of another, be it an individual, a group or a government.

Works

The surviving fragments of Thrasymachus' works do not provide further clues to his philosophical ideas.

These deal with rhetorical questions or are speeches that may have been written for others. In that sense, they can not be considered as a faithful expression of their own thoughts.

Perhaps the most important fragment of his work is that in which it is stated that the gods do not care about human affairs, since they do not enforce justice.

However, there are disagreements among his scholars about whether this thought is compatible with the position that Thrasymachus expresses in The Republic .

There is a man with the same name mentioned in the Politics of Aristotle, who overthrew democracy in the Greek city of Cime. However, details of this event are completely unknown and it can not be said that it is the same person.

In his work Phaedrus Plato described Thrasymachus as a successful rhetorician; however, he did not attribute another significant quality. The Byzantine Encyclopedia Suda also offers a brief description of Thrasymachus as a rhetorical theorist.

He says that"A Chalcedonian sophist (...) was the first to discover the period and the colon, and introduced the modern type of rhetoric." He concludes by saying that he was a disciple of the philosopher Plato and Isocrates.

Influences

Thrasymachus is recognized for his influence in contemporary political theory and is described as"a primitive version of Machiavelli." In Prince Machiavelli maintained that the true statesman does not stop at moral restrictions in his search for power.

In his book Isaous Dionysius of Halicarnassus extolled the rhetorical abilities of Thrasymachus. He describes him as"pure, subtle, inventive and able, according to what he wants, to speak with rigor or with an abundance of words".

At the same time, Dionisio considered him a second-rate speaker, since Trasímaco did not leave speeches to study his work, only manuals and exhibition speeches.

Trasímaco composed a manual of rhetoric and compiled a collection of passages that served as models to his students: they were the so-called oratory resources that describes the Suda .

References

1. Life and work of Thrasymachus. Retrieved on April 23, 2018 from perseus.tufts.edu
2. Patricia O'Graddy: The Sophists: An Introduction. Consulted by books.google.co.ve
3. Thrasymachus. Viewed from simplyknowledge.com
4. Thrasymachus. Consulted by philosimply.com
5. Thrasymachus (fl 427 B.C.E.) Consulted by iep.utm.edu
6. Thrasymachus. Consulted by poemhunter.com
7. Thrasymachus (5th century BC). Consulted by mcnbiografias.com