Plato's Use of Fallacy: A Study of the Euthydemus and Some Other Dialogues (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Plato's Use of Fallacy: A Study of the Euthydemus and Some Other Dialogues

There is no doubt that there are many fallacious arguments in Plato's dialogues. This book is an attempt to try out the hypo thesis that Plato was fully conscious of the fallacious character of at least an important number of these arguments, and that he sometimes made deliberate use of fallacy as an indirect means of setting forth certain of his fundamental philosophical views.

Of course there may well be arguments in the dialogues which Plato regarded as sound but which are in fact fallacious. It is not my purpose to deny this nor to examine passages where Plato may have committed unintentional logical errors. My purpose is rather to insist that in the case of certain specific fallacious arguments Plato was fully aware of the fallacy and used it for a purpose.

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