Criticism of The Dialogue
This dialogue is much dismissed because it seems to recommend clever evil over witless evil. This is not the real point however. Socrates is the impressario who sings off key, the boxer who throws the match not for money, but because he can. The dialogue does not establish Socrates' absurd thesis, that the deliberate liar is better than the witless one, but it does prove that Plato is as clever as Homer. Socrates, who pretends to be a lover of good reasoning, is widely thought to be what he says he is, a rational man. Socrates is the literary equivalent of Achilles, whose speech against dissembling seems to fool everyone. Socrates is no more "rational" than Achilles is "honest and simple".
The moral argument of the dialog, a kind of red herring, can be summed up simply:
- One who is able to lie about any subject must know the subject in depth, thus is able to tell the truth.
- One who lies knowingly is superior to one who lies unwittingly.
Socrates' argument entails a gross confusion between the notions of being able to do evil, and wanting to do it. Socrates' apparent immorality has caused some scholars (notably Victor Cousin and Eduard Zeller) to doubt its authenticity. They argue that Socrates is uncharacteristically lacking in righteousness, and that this puts the dialog at odds with the main body of Socratic dialogs.
The opinions of Socrates in any given dialog not only often contradict conventional morality, they also contradict his own previous opinions. For example, in the Apology, Socrates praises "the son of Thetis" (Achilles) for making light of death because he was so obsessed with getting revenge on Hector for killing Patroclus. In this scene, Achilles does not go in to fight, but agrees to his mother's command that he wait until she gets special battle gear made for him. Socrates invocation of Achilles as a model for his own fearlessness is misplaced because Achilles is a coward in the scene. In the Republic Socrates has a different opinion of Achilles. He calls him emotionally overwrought, and greedy (for taking bribes - which, according to Homer, he did not do). Socrates famously argues that the Iliad needs to be rewritten.
What must not be overlooked, however, is that Plato is the mastermind, and must be given full credit for arranging the match. Socrates wins the debate with Hippias, and then throws the trophy back at the sophist, who never knew what hit him. Readers for centuries have been hard pressed to judge the match.
Read more about this topic: Hippias Minor
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