So i'm reading EUTHYDEMUS by Plato. In this dialogue Socrates meets two brothers that believe that they can sell wisdom to people.
To impress Socrates and his friends, they first challenge a young boy and demonstrate that words can have more than one meaning in a context and in fact any answer to their question can be wrong. One of Socrates' friends steps in only to be frustrated when he can't break their chain of logic. Then another, more learned friend of Socrates steps in and their word play
Now its clear that they are sophists (i.e. Plato's version of Satan) and this is one his main works on rhetoric. I haven't finished the dialogue but I have to ask:
What is wisdom? How is it really different from what these two brothers are doing? Is the sort of wisdom Plato's characters (like Socrates and co.) advocate genuine or does Socrates perform a different kind of wordplay and he simply believes he is touching on genuine teaching? After all the whole "idea-have opponent verify the idea-come a conclusion that bewilders opponent" not the same thing but with a different motive? Was Aristophanes right to say that Socrates was just an idealized sophist?
Isn't it contradictory? After all, if you teach wisdom well and argue well, making it hard for your opponent to argue with you are basically teaching your student how to think like you? If wisdom poorly (i.e. they can consider the problem easier and come to their own conclusions) are you not failing to argue but doing a better job in creating unique thought in the opponent?
If its answered later then i'll finish it and come back, but I want to get your take on it.