Euthydemus by Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett INTRODUCTION. The Euthydemus, though apt to be regarded by us only as an elaborate jest, has also a very serious purpose. It may fairly claim to be the oldest treatise on logic; for that science originates in the misunderstandings which necessarily accompany the first efforts of speculation. Several of the fallacies which are satirized in it reappear in the Sophistici Elenchi of Aristotle and are retained at the end of our manuals of logic. But if the order of

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: CALLICLES; SOCRATES; CHAEREPHON; GORGIAS; POLUS Scene: The house of Callicles. Callicles. The wise man, as the proverb says, is late for a fray, but not for a feast. Socrates. And are we late for a feast? Cal. Yes, and a delightful feast; for Gorgias has just been exhibiting to us many fine things. Soc. It is not my fault, Callicles; our friend Chaerephon is to blame; for he would keep us loitering in the Agora. Chaerephon. Never mind, Socrates; the misfortune of which I have been the cause I will also repair; for Gorgias is a friend of mine, and I will make him give the exhibition again either now, or, if you prefer, at some other time.