Education through Argument in Plato's Protagoras

More and more lately, commentators who have defended Socrates have emphasized the extent to which he uses non-rational means of educating his interlocutors, and commentators have downplayed the extent to which he means to offer arguments that provide justification or are rationally persuasive. The trend is refreshing since students of Socrates have often read him as Gregory Vlastos and Lawrence Kohlberg did — namely, as someone who, like Kohlberg, thinks that arguments are all-sufficient. In this paper, though, Mason Marshall suggests that there is a danger of overcorrecting. He points to Plato's Protagoras as a case where, on the one hand, Socrates makes an attempt at rational persuasion, and on the other hand, he does so sensibly. Marshall contends that Socrates's strategy is worth considering for what it reveals about his approach to education and for how it might inform ours.