Protagora Vs Socrates

Throughout the dialogue Protagoras, written by Plato, we find our two main characters Socrates, and Protagoras enveloped in a discussion about the nature of virtue and how important the distinction is between having virtue and not having virtue and the distinction of it. During this “discussion” between the two, both Socrates and Protagoras showcase to the readers through their conversation what they believe to be important to them in that conversation. What exactly it is that would make Socrates a philosopher, and that much different from the actual philosopher Protagoras, which will discussed in this paper, would be his sense of legitimate curiosity about the subject that is being discussed between the two of them, and his ability to listen

Throughout Socrates discussion with Protagoras on behalf of Hippocrates, the difference in what they are attempting to get out of the conversation is apparent. Socrates is only there in the beginning to simply ask on behalf of Hippocrates and to have a discussion with Protagoras, but those intentions evolve into a legitimate curiosity about the discussion once he begins to talk with Protagoras. Before the conversation even begins, Socrates questions exactly why it is that he wants to go and asks what makes the sophist someone with the ability to teach, a “knower”, and those which they are teaching. Protagoras compares those without knowledge and virtue as “going around grazing unrestrained….in hopes that they might stumble across virtue” (320a). This quote gives a sense of how those who aren’t sophists are seen, as a sort of sheep that