Thrasymachus was an ancient philosopher of the Greek sophistic school, who lived around 459-400 BC. 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 excelled as a teacher of rhetoric and writer of speeches, thus amassing a great fortune.
Very little is known about his work, except for appeals that other Greek philosophers make of him. Only a few fragments of his speeches survive from his work. He is best known for his mention in Plato's book The Republic: he is named during a meeting with Socrates in which the two develop a dialogue about the nature of justice.
For Thrasymachus justice is nothing more than the advantage of the strongest. Thrasymachus' ideas have often been seen as the first fundamental critique of moral values. His thought is considered a precursor of Nietzsche's ideas.
Biography
There is very little information regarding the precise years of birth and death of the philosopher Thrasymachus. From quotes in the works of other ancient Greek thinkers, he is believed to have been born in 470 BC. C.
Nor is anything known about the reasons that motivated Thrasymachus' trip from Macedonia to Greece: whether it was for work or study.
Cicero mentions it several times citing Gorgias, which seems to imply that Thrasymachus and Gorgias were contemporaries. According to Dionysius, Thrasymachus was younger than Lysias, who lived between 445 and 380 BC. C., but Aristotle places it between Tisias and Teodoro, although he does not establish precise dates.
Aristophanes mocks him in his play Los Banqueteros, whose game was played in 427; therefore, he must have taught in Athens during those years. Even in one of the surviving fragments of his speech, it 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 5th century BC. C.
Thrasymachus taught rhetoric and wrote speeches for others, which enabled 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. Also, his good upbringing 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 Thrasymachus' death. However, the thesis that he died of natural causes is accepted.
At that time, the strange custom of writing biographies of 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 sufficient interest among ancient biographers, among other reasons because he was contemporary with figures like Socrates, more prominent than him and captivating to the masses.
Thought
The ideas of Thrasymachus have greatly influenced contemporary ethical and political theory. Although there is no agreement on the interpretation of Thrasymachus' arguments described in the work The Republic, his ideas are considered the first critical reference to moral values.
Thrasymachus belonged to the sophistic current along with Protagoras, Gorgias, Callicles, Hippias, Prodicus and Critias. In the first book of The Republic he attacks Socrates' argument that justice is an important good.
On the contrary, he argues that on a large enough scale, "injustice (…) is stronger, freer, and more masterful than justice." Like Callicles, he maintains that justice finds its foundation in force.
Ideas about justice
His reasoning about justice centers on these three ideas:
1- Justice is nothing more than the advantage of the strongest.
2- Justice is actually the advantage of another.
3- Justice is obedience to the laws.
Several questions arise from the three statements. Why follow the rules that are best for the politically strongest? Or why should these actions serve the interests of others and not your own?
On the other hand, because the ruling elite is stronger in every way, the weaker are usually more likely to be punished for breaking any law.
They are in a greater state of defenselessness in the face of forced confiscation of property, forced slavery or loss of freedom due to imprisonment.
In his exposition to Socrates, Thrasymachus expresses three inferences: the first is that justice gives a greater advantage to the strongest, the second that justice is an invention of powerful rulers (whom it never harms), and the third indicates that justice Justice is at the service of another, be it an individual, a group or a government.
Plays
The surviving fragments of Thrasymachus' works do not provide further clues about his philosophical ideas.
These address rhetorical issues or are speeches that may have been written for others. In this sense, they cannot be considered as a faithful expression of your own thoughts.
Perhaps the most important fragment of his work is the one in which it is stated that the gods do not care about the affairs of humans, 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 Aristotle's Politics, who overthrew democracy in the Greek city of Cime. However, details of this event are completely unknown and it cannot 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 to it. The Byzantine encyclopedia Suda also offers a brief description of Thrasymachus as a rhetorical theorist.
He says that "A sophist from Chalcedon (…) 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 on contemporary political theory and is described as "a primitive version of Machiavelli." In The Prince, Machiavelli argued that the true statesman does not stop at moral constraints in his quest for power.
In his book Isaous Dionisio de Halicarnaso extolled the rhetorical abilities of Thrasymachus. He describes him as "pure, subtle, inventive and capable, depending on what you want, of speaking rigorously or with an abundance of words."
At the same time, Dionisio considered him a second-rate speaker, since Thrasymachus did not leave speeches to study his work, only manuals and exhibition speeches.
Thrasymachus composed a rhetoric manual and compiled a collection of passages that served as models for his students: they were the so-called oratorical resources that the Suda describes.
References
- Life and work of Thrasymachus. Retrieved April 23, 2018 from perseus.tufts.edu
- Patricia O'Graddy: The Sophists: An Introduction. Consulted of books.google.co.ve
- Thrasymachus. Consulted from simplyknowledge.com
- Thrasymachus. Consulted from philosimply.com
- Thrasymachus (fl. 427 BCE) Retrieved from iep.utm.edu
- Thrasymachus. Consulted from poemhunter.com
- Thrasymachus (5th century BC). Consulted of mcnbiografias.com