1. There are two helpful commentaries in English on the dialogue, Edwin Gifford's The Euthydemus of Plato (Oxford, 1905) and R. S. W. Hawtrey's Commentary on Plato's Euthydemus (Philadelphia, 1981); but neither work can be said to provide a systematic and coherent interpretation. Even in Germany, where little escapes the critical eye of scholarship, there is only one, Hermann Keulen's monograph Unter-suchungen zu Platons "Euthydem " (Wiesbaden, 1971; hereafter UPE ). We can expect this situation to change, for in France two works on the Euthydemus have recently appeared, Michel Narcy's Le Philosophe et son double (Paris, 1984) and Monique Canto's L'Intrigue Philosophique (Paris, 1987).

2. I. M. Crombie, An Examination of Plato's Doctrines , 2 vols. (London, 1963), 1: 223-224 and 2: 488-489. Crombie does, however, deny that the Euthydemus is "trivial;" he doubts "whether it belongs to Plato's youth;" and he opts instead for a "fairly late date" (1: 223).

3. One exception is the delightful discussion by Gerard Hinrichs, "The Euthydemus as a Locus of the Socratic Elenchus," New Scholasticism 25 (1951), 178-183.

4. Recently Vlastos has tackled a passage from Socrates' protreptic ("Happiness and Virtue in Socrates' Moral Theory," Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 210 [1984], 199-201; or Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher [Ithaca, 1991], pp. 227-231); see also "The Socratic Elenchus," Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 1 (1983), 57-58; and "Elenchus and Mathematics: A Turning-Point in Plato's Philosophical Development," American Journal of Philology 109 (1988), 372-374 and 385-386; or Socrates , pp. 116-118 and 127-128. When, however, we compare his brief remarks on the Euthydemus with how much he has written, e.g., on the Protagoras, Gorgias, Lysis , and Meno , we cannot fail to see how consistently he has steered away from this dialogue. And most significant of all, Vlastos has not in any way engaged the eristic arguments of the Euthydemus .

5. An oversight that R. K. Sprague has corrected with the publication of The Older Sophists (Columbia, S.C., 1972), pp. 294-301, where we see how little is known about the brother-pair apart from Plato's dialogue.

6. C. J. Classen, Sophistic (Darmstadt, 1976), pp. 641-709.

7. W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy , vol. 3 (Cambridge, 1969), p. vii (hereafter HGP ).

8. We know of their existence from two sources independent of Plato. Xenophon informs us that Dionysodorus was a military expert ( Memorabilia III. 1.1), and Aristotle twice associates Euthydemus with fallacies ( Sophistici Elenchi 20.177 B 12 [hereafter SE ]; and Rhetoric 2.24.1401 A 28). What we cannot prove with certainty is that Euthydemus and Dionysodorus were brothers, and so it has been argued that the coupling of the two is an example of Platonic roguery ( Schalkhaftigkeit ); see Keulen, UPE , pp. 8-9.

9. See Gregory Vlastos, "Socrates' Disavowal of Knowledge," Philosophical Quarterly 35 (1985), 1 n. 1, or Socrates , pp. 46-47. Charles Kahn has recently argued that the Euthydemus is to be classified as a "pre-middle" dialogue ("Did Plato Write Socratic Dialogues?" Classical Quarterly 31 [1981], 305-309) and to be read as a member of a group that includes the Charmides, Laches , and Lysis (''Plato's Charmides and the Proleptic Reading of Socratic Dialogues," Journal of Philosophy 85 [1988], 542).

10. For example, Edwin Gifford thinks the Euthydemus was composed after the Phaedrus ( The Euthydemus of Plato , p. 32); Paul Natorp argues that it is an appendix to the Theaetetus ( Platos Ideenlehre [Leipzig, 1921], pp. 119-122); Henry Sidgwick places the Euthydemus with the Sophist ("The Sophists," Journal of Philology 4 [1872], 306); and E. Pfleiderer puts it after ( Socrates und Plato [1896], pp. 318-320, 330, 333, 342).

11. Paul Shorey, The Unity of Plato's Thought (Chicago, 1903), p. 76. To Shorey, this dilemma is false; his unity hypothesis allows him to bridge the gap between the two alternatives "early" and "late," which only appear to be mutually exclusive.

12. Sidgwick, "The Sophists," esp. pp. 298-307. A. E. Taylor successfully refutes Sidgwick's position; " " in Varia Socratica (Oxford, 1911), pp. 92-93.

13. So Vlastos can tell us that "in common with most scholars" he has been dating the Euthydemus before the Meno ("Socrates' Disavowal of Knowledge," p. 16 n. 37); but in fact he actually commits himself to a much stronger claim, that the Euthydemus "must precede the Meno " ("The Socratic Elenchus," p. 58).

14. One exception to this tendency is G. B. Kerferd, who has stressed the crucial importance of eristic and antilogic for Plato's thought ( The Sophistic Movement [Cambridge, 1981], pp. 59-67). "The truth is," as Sprague notes, "Plato was much more interested in eristic

than most of his interpreters have been" ("Socrates' Safest Answer: Phaedo 100D," Hermes 96 [1968], 635).

15. Guthrie, HGP 4: 281.

16. See ibid., p. 279, and Harold Cherniss, Selected Papers (Leiden, 1977), p. 263.

15. Guthrie, HGP 4: 281.

16. See ibid., p. 279, and Harold Cherniss, Selected Papers (Leiden, 1977), p. 263.

17. In addition to Vlastos and Kahn, several others have embraced the "early" or "transitional" hypothesis without feeling any need to engage the eristic arguments: Marion Soreth ("Zur relativen Chronologic von Menon und Euthydem," Hermes 83 [1955], 377-379); E. R. Dodds ( Plato, Gorgias [Oxford, 1959], pp. 22-23); R. S. Bluck ( Plato's Meno [Cambridge, 1961], pp. 114-115); T. Irwin ( Plato's Moral Theory [Oxford, 1977], pp. 291-292); Richard Kraut ( Socrates and the State [Princeton, 1984], p. 4 n. 1); Michael Ferejohn ("Socratic Thought-Experiments and the Unity of Virtue Paradox," Phronesis 29 [1984], 109 n. 14); and Thomas C. Brickhouse and Nicholas D. Smith ("Socrates on Goods, Virtue, and Happiness,'' Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 5 [1987], 1 n. 1). This short list could be significantly increased if it were to include those who do not address the dating issue but who proceed on the assumption that the Euthydemus is early. Among those who place the Euthydemus before the Meno , Paul Friedländer is an important exception. Though accepting the early hypothesis ( Plato , vol. 2 [Princeton, 1969], p. 335 n. 3), he offers an excellent treatment of eristic. His analysis suggests that it is not the early hypothesis itself, but the way in which it is currently understood and applied that constitutes an obstacle to the study of the Euthydemus .

18. In addition to those already cited, there are a few scholars who have placed the Euthydemus with or after the Meno ; see Wincenty Lutoslawski ( The Origin and Growth of Plato's Logic [London, 1897], p. 211); E. S. Thompson ( The Meno of Plato [London, 1901], p. 281); Theodor Gomperz ( Griechische Denker , 4th ed., vol. 2 [Berlin/Leipzig, 1925], p. 425); Hans Raeder ( Platons Philosophische Entwicklung [Leipzig, 1905], p. 146); Ulrich yon Wilamowitz-Moellendorff ( Platon , 5th ed., vol. 1 [Berlin, 1920], p. 308); Louis Méridier ( Euthydème , vol. 5 [Paris, 1931], pp. 139-142); Kurt Hildebrandt ( Platon, Logos und Mythos , 2d ed. [Berlin, 1959], p. 396); Constantin Ritter ( Hermes 70 [1935], 30); Harold Cherniss ( Selected Papers , p. 249); G. E. L. Owen ("The Place of the Timaeus in Plato's Dialogues," in Studies in Plato's Metaphysics , ed. R. E. Allen [New York, 1965], p. 329); and R. S, W. Hawtrey ( Commentary , p. 10).

19. So, for example, A. C. Lloyd can write: "The Sophist is not the reply to the Theaetetus but to the Euthydemus " ("Falsehood and Significance according to Plato," Proceedings of the Eleventh International Con-

gress of Philosophy 12 [Amsterdam/Louvain, 1953], 69); Sprague has shown how the Euthydemus looks toward the Parmenides ("Parmenides' Sail and Dionysodorus' Ox," Phronesis 12 [1967], 91-98. The general picture that emerges from all seven attempts to define the sophist in the dialogue by that name fits the brother-pair more closely than any other sophist of antiquity, a point that J. L. Smith has made in his dissertation ("Plato and the Paradox of False Statements: A Study of the Euthydemus and the Sophist " [Virginia, 1975], p. 20); and Thomas Alexander Szlezák has explored the connection between the Euthydemus and the Phaedrus ("Sokrates' Sport fiber Geheimhaltung: Zum Bild des in Platons Euthydemos ," Antike und Abendland 26 [1980], esp. 79-81).

20. Thus Owen: "And thereby the Timaeus at once ranks itself with the Republic and Euthydemus " ("The Place of the Timaeus ," p. 329); cf. Cherniss, Selected Papers , pp. 340-342.

21. Thus R. S. W. Hawtrey, "How Do Dialecticians Use Diagrams—Plato, Euthydemus 290b-c," Apeiron 12 (1978), 16.

22. The attitude of scholars toward Plato's eristic appears to be similar to that of the Red King, after Alice tells him that the verses of the White Rabbit do not contain an atom of meaning: "If there's no meaning in it," said the King, "that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find any."

23. Lewis Campbell, The Sophistes and Politicus of Plato (Oxford, 1867), p. xii. An excellent place to begin inquiry into these problems is still Eduard Zeller, Socrates and the Socratic School , trans. O. J. Reichel, 3rd ed. (London, 1962), chap. 12, pp. 250-284.

24. For the Eleatic sources of eristic, see Keulen, UPE , p. 77 n. 68. A. E. Taylor has made a powerful case for the Zenonian origins of eristic (" ," p. 92, and Plato, the, Man and His Work [London, 1927], pp. 89-102; hereafter PMW ).

25. Thus Keulen, UPE , pp. 84-90, though he acknowledges that eristic may be a "many-headed" phenomenon (p. 92). Sidgwick argues that both Protagoras and Zeno are the sources ("The Sophists," pp. 299-300).

26. See Wilamowitz, Platon 2: 155-156; and Karl Praechter, "Platon und Euthydemos," Philologus 87 (1932), 122-127.

27. Thus Taylor, " ," p. 93.

28. Thus Sidgwick, "The Sophists," pp. 298-307; see also E. S. Thompson, The Meno , p. 278; and Hawtrey, Commentary , pp. 28-30.

29. For Isocrates, the most important texts are Antidosis (258-269), Helen (1-13), Panathenaicus (26-29), Against the Sophists , and Letter to Alexander . For a treatment of these problems, see Christoph Eucken,

Isokrates: Seine Positionen in der Auseinandersetzung mit den zeitgenössischen Philosophen (Berlin, 1983), esp. pp. 44-53.

30. And so Guthrie has remarked: "This word 'eristic' was so freely bandied about that it might be said that one man's philosophy was another man's eristic" ( HGP , 4: 275).

31. Aristotle's critique of eristic was carried on by Theophrastus in his "Polemical Discussion on the Theory of Eristic Argument" (Diogenes Laertius 5.42; hereafter D.L.); the loss of Theophrastus' work has been lamented by Arthur Schopenhauer, who in his own Eristische Dialektik expresses a keen sensitivity to the power of eristic ( Parerga , vol. 5, chap. 2).

32. See D.L., Life of Arcesilaus , 4.28.

33. Criticism of this type is especially prevalent among the older Germans; see Keulen, UPE , pp. 1-5. But we can still hear: "Our patience with the sophists is exhausted long before the end of the dialogue" (G. E. R. Lloyd, Polarity and Analogy [Cambridge, 1966], p. 137); "Why, we might ask, did Plato choose to show Socrates dealing with their elementary fallacies?" (Guthrie, HGP , 4: 266); and, after telling us that the eristic sections are "not very edifying" and delivered "by a pair of quite forgettable sophists,'' Ferejohn concludes: "To put the point delicately, these interlocutions are not exactly brimming with philosophical delights, which provokes one to wonder why Plato bothers to record or construct them in such fine detail" (''Socratic Thought-Experiments," p. 109).

34. These remarks are in no way intended to be a criticism of Aristotle's Sophistici Elenchi , on which I am currently preparing a monograph.

35. For the Greek of these two passages, see Keulen, UPE , pp. 19 and 17. All translations from the Greek are my own.

36. Our evidence indicates that it was not Plato but his younger associates, especially Aristotle and Xenocrates, who began the systematic study of solutions. Aristotle's treatment of them can be found in SE 16-33, and Diogenes credits Xenocrates with "solutions" in two books and "solutions to arguments" in ten (D.L. 4.13). Numerous post-Aristotelian treatises show that Hellenistic philosophers, especially the Stoics, carried on this interest in solving logical paradoxes.

37. M. J. Routh, Platonis Euthydemus et Gorgias (Oxford, 1784); Augustus Winckelmann, Platonis Euthydemus (Leipzig, 1833).

38. For Bonitz's list of eristic arguments, see Platonische Studien , 3rd ed. (Berlin, 1886), pp. 95-103. I have followed his catalogue with but two exceptions, duly noted at a later time. Prior to Bonitz, the best analysis of the Euthydemus is George Grote, Plato and the Other Compan-

ions of Socrates , vol. 1 (London, 1865), pp. 527-564, which is still a must for all students of the dialogue.

39. Two obvious exceptions are Taylor, " ," pp. 91-128, and PMW , pp. 89-102; and Paul Shorey, What Plato Said (Chicago, 1933), pp. 160-168.

40. See esp. R. K. Sprague, Plato's Use of Fallacy (London, 1962), p. 7 n. 5. Sprague was not alone in detecting that Robinson's views could be harmful to the Euthydemus . Hinrichs wrote his article " Euthydemus as a Locus" to assess "the violence [Robinson had] done to Plato's conception of Socratic elenchus" (p. 178). Both Dennis Stuart (''An Interpretation of Plato's Euthydemus " [Ph.D. diss., Yale Univ., 1980], pp. 76-81) and J. L. Smith ("Plato and the Paradox of False Statements," pp. 51-56) have sharply criticized Robinson's views. And Narcy has recently attacked him for spawning ''an exegesis of mistrust" ("une exégèse de la méfiance": Le Philosophe , p. 11).

41. Even as scholars apply Aristotle's critical apparatus to the Euthydemus , they clearly recognize that in a sense it is inappropriate to do so; see Sprague's remarks in "Logic and Literary Form in Plato," Personalist 48 (1967), 560-572, and in "Plato's Sophistry (II)," Aristotelian Society Suppl . 51 (1977), pp. 47-50.

42. C. L. Hamblin, Fallacies (London, 1970), p. 59. Hawtrey claims that "the twenty-one sophisms certainly constitute, in a sense, a 'handbook of fallacies,'" and that "the main purpose of the eristic sections is, then, gymnastic" ( Commentary , p. 20); so too Gilbert Ryle, "Dialectic in the Academy," in Aristotle on Dialectic , ed. G. E. L. Owen (Oxford, 1968), p. 78; and J. L. Smith, "Plato and the Paradox of False Statements," pp. 15-17. These authors have attributed a gymnastic function to the eristic sections without reflecting on the difference between the public and private expressions of this "laborious game"; cf. Euthydemus 304 A-B and Parmenides 135 D-137 B. In the Euthydemus Plato is showing the disastrous consequences that eristic activity can have when it is given public expression, a point that did not escape George Grote ( Plato , pp. 532-533).

43. See Richard Robinson, "Ambiguity," Mind 50 (1941), 141, and "Plato's Consciousness of Fallacy," Mind 51 (1942), 102-103, 107, 109, and 114.

44. Thus Narcy parodies the position of Robinson: "Il en reste donc à cette conclusion bizarre que Platon, piètre logicien, se fait l'adversaire des sophistes sans pouvoir établir clairement ce qu'est un sophisme!" ( Le Philosophe , p. 11).

45. See Ryle, "Dialectic in the Academy," pp. 70 and 78. Ryle does not mention that, far from being stimulated, Kleinias is crushed by the first two arguments alone. Nor does he consider what effect eristic

stimulation has on Ktesippus, an altogether different young man. Ryle has really attributed to Plato an interest that is better suited not only to Aristotle and Xenocrates but especially to the Megarians, who were famous in antiquity for setting forth logical paradoxes for the purpose of training their students.

46. SE 34.183 B 36: ; see Sprague, "Logic and Literary Form," esp. pp. 560-561 and 567-568.

47. See Keulen, UPE , pp. 23-25, 35, and 40. But Keulen does express his preference for the Aristotelian treatment, owing to its greater clarity and logical rigor (p. 22).

48. See ibid., pp. 5, 34-39, and 58-60. Keulen also credits Bonitz and Friedländer with helping him to establish his thesis.

49. Importantly, Keulen's analysis does reveal how closely Plato has joined the two works; for, as he says, the Euthydemus awakens "den Eindruck geradezu einer Persiflage des Menon " ( UPE , p. 51).

50. So, for example, in their immensely influential edition of Plato's corpus, Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns introduce the Euthydemus to their English readers thus: "This is perhaps of all the dialogues the one that makes the Athens of Socrates and Plato seem farthest removed from us" ( The Collected Dialogues of Plato [Princeton, 1961], p. 385).

51. Natorp was one of the first to recognize that the Euthydemus could be compared to a satyr play ("wie eine Art Satyrspiel": Platos Ideenlehre , p. 119). We shall see that this genre, which permits an intermingling of the tragic and the comic, is ideally suited to the design of this dialogue.

52. For a formal analysis of the dramatic and rhetorical structure of the Euthydemus , see Appendix I.

53. For a quick review of the three branches of Greek oratory, see Aristotle's Rhetoric 1.3, and cf. Phaedrus 261 A-E. We should also remember that a deliberative oration can be delivered to a single individual ( Rhetoric 2.18 1391 B 9), that it seeks to lead its listener to a judgment , and that the listener can best attain this judgment if the speaker distinguishes the alternatives as clearly and distinctly as possible ( Republic 360 E).

54. For the references to this key term in the Euthydemus , see 275 A 1 , 278 C 5-6 , 278 D 2 , 282 D 4-6 ( ), and 307 A 2 .

55. Two excellent works take up these issues of the protreptic genre: W. Gerson Rabinowitz, Aristotle's Protrepticus and the Sources of Its Reconstruction (Berkeley, 1957); and Ingemar Düring, Aristotle's Protrepticus: An Attempt at Reconstruction (Göteborg, 1961).

56. In the Euthydemus , is used only once, in Socrates' concluding admonition to Crito (307 C 1). In Aristotle ( Rhetoric 1.3 1358 B ff.), the apotreptic and its counterpart, the protreptic, make up deliberative oratory. In the Rhetorica ad Alexandrum (1421 B 9), the apotreptic is a recognized genre in its own right.

57. As Leo Strauss notes, Crito's "Who is X" question belongs to the "sphere of gossip, of ordinary curiosity" (''On the Euthydemus," Interpretation 1 [1970], 1).

58. Cf. Sophist 218 C. Crito has the right name for the beast, but he is unfamiliar with its current manifestation as eristic.

59. Crito's three questions—"Who was he? "Where are they from?" and "What's their wisdom?"—recall the Homeric formula for such greetings and add a charming epic touch that helps to prepare for the epiphany of the semidivine warriors of eristic (273 A).

60. See 272 A 8-B 1: . If there is any remark in the Euthydemus that is likely to be familiar, this is it.

61. To follow out the comparison between eristic and the pancration, see E. Norman Gardiner's Athletics of the Ancient World (Chicago, 1987), chaps. 14 and 16, and esp. his essay "Wrestling," Journal of Hellenic Studies 25 (1905), 14-31, in which he says: "The pankratiast, like the bully, sought by all means in his power to reduce his opponent to helplessness and to force him to acknowledge defeat, and the result in both cases was not infrequently fatal" (p. 27).

62. Nowhere in the Euthydemus does Plato state the obvious, that victory is the end of eristic argumentation. It is Aristotle who makes this connection ; see SE 11.171 B 25-26.

63. Socrates' narratio is itself a sample of forensic oratory in which he produces a scathing indictment of eristic activity and a subtle defense of his own dialectic. Then, without actually saying so, he uses this indictment and defense for his deliberative purpose of calling for the rejection of eristic and the acceptance of dialectic. When we examine eristic apart from both its forensic and deliberative covering, it turns out to be a deviant form of epideictic oratory which exists merely to be observed as a playful form of argument for the sake of argument; see 286 D 11-13.

64. Cherniss, "Parmenides and the Parmenides of Plato," in Selected Papers , p. 286.

65. In Plato's Earlier Dialectic (Oxford, 1953), Richard Robinson provides a clear expression of this consensus omnium :

1. "Plato constantly has in mind a certain opposite of dialectic, something superficially like dialectic and yet as bad as dialectic is

good, something against which the would-be dialectician must always be on guard. He has two chief names for this shadow or reverse of dialectic, antilogic and eristic" (pp. 84-85).

2. "The reason why Plato constantly pillories eristic and distinguishes it from dialectic is that in truth his own dialectic very closely resembled eristic" (p. 85).

3. "In spite of Plato's care to keep the word 'dialectic' for a good method distinct from the prevalent 'eristic', it often came near to being confounded therewith" (p. 88).

Nearly everyone who has commented on the Euthydemus has made similar remarks. Consider, for example:

4. Theodor Gomperz: "His [Socrates'] friendly exhortation, his fatherly way of encouraging and guiding his listener to the acquisition of positive results, stand in absolute opposition [ steht in schroffem Gegensatze ] to the barren and intimidating paradoxes of the two eristics. This far-reaching, carefully calculated contrast-effect [ Kontrastwirkung ] may be regarded as the goal [ Ziel ] and purpose [ Zweck ] of the whole dialogue" ( Griechische Denker , p. 425; my translation).

5. F. M. Cornford: "But in fundamental motive controversy, which neglects truth to gain victory, is diametrically opposed to the philosophic art of conversation" ( Plato's Theory of Knowledge [London, 1935], p. 190).

6. Paul Friedländer: "Eristics has emerged as the very opposite of "philosophy" and has collapsed as far as any careful observer is concerned" ( Plato , 2: 189).

7. Alexander Nehamas: "Socrates' practice is in stark contrast with the method of Euthydemus, despite their apparent similarity" ("Meno's Paradox and Socrates as a Teacher," Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 3 [1985], 19).

See also Grote ( Plato , p. 530); Sidgwick ("The Sophists," pp. 296, 299, and 305); Thompson ( The Meno , p. 272); Campbell ( Sophistes , pp. xi-xii); Gifford ( Euthydemus , pp. 10-13); Guthrie ( HGP , 4: 275-276); Szlezák ("Sokrates' Spott über Geheimhaltung," p. 81); Henry Teloh ( Socratic Education in Plato's Early Dialogues [Indiana, 1986], pp. 195-196); and Robin Waterfield ( Early Socratic Dialogues [Harmondsworth, 1987], pp. 300-303).

66. At the end of the dialogue Plato introduces the critic of philosophy as a vehicle for showing that the brothers are popularly regarded as philosophers (305 A 5).

67. The one exception to this trend in scholarship is Szlezák, who has argued forcefully for this thesis in the best article on the dialogue: "Euthydemos und Dionysodoros sind in allem das genaue Gegenbild des wahren Philosophen" ("Sokrates' Spott über Geheimhaltung," p. 81).

68. Since he is unfamiliar with the pair (271 B 9), Crito can have no knowledge of this measure. Since knowledge of opposites is the same, he can have no knowledge of the opposing measure in all philosophy, Socrates. Consequently, to the end of the work Crito remains and must remain unable to see that Socrates is the one who can turn his boy to philosophy.

69. It will be demonstrated by numerous examples how Plato uses ironical inversion, the rhetorical figure of enantiosis, as a structuring device by which he has the characters of his dialogue mean the opposite of what they say.

70. In his essay "Laughter," Henri Bergson argues that the comic character per se wears Gyges' ring with reverse effect (in Comedy , ed. Wylie Sypher [Baltimore, 1986], p. 71). His analysis of the comic grimace (pp. 74-79) applies with precision to Dionysodorus' smile (275 E 4) and reveals how carefully, in just this one detail, Plato has stigmatized Dionysodorus as a comic buffoon. For the serious smile of the true dialectician, see Phaedo 86 D 6.

71. Plato does this, in part, by rigging the eristic refutations of the brothers in such a way that every time they turn the tables on their opponent, they reinforce a still clearer knowledge of what is not proper philosophical behavior. This negative knowledge of what to avoid and to reject can be viewed as an advance in knowledge.

72. As Woody Allen puts it in Crimes and Misdemeanors : "What is comedy? Comedy is tragedy plus time." It is now clear why Vlastos does not prove his case when he argues that the Euthydemus "must precede the Meno ," for it does not ''anticipate its metaphysical, epistemological, and methodological novelties" ("The Socratic Elenchus," p. 58); he is, presumably, referring to their apparent absence from the Socratic episodes. Our analysis will show, however, that it is precisely these "novelties,'' already presupposed, that impart to the eristic sections their full satiric force. Thus Cherniss is more likely to be correct when he calls the Euthydemus "a dialogue earlier than the Republic and roughly contemporary with the Meno " ( Selected Papers , p. 249).