The False Appearance of the Sophist Himself in the First Six Definitions of Plato’s Sophist

Abstract

The key to how the definitions in Sophist fit together is the seventh definition, the maker of false appearances. The first six definitions are a false appearance of the sophist himself, as a businessman who sells an art of disputation to rich young men. Because this is a deception, to unmask him we need to supplement the brief descriptions in Sophist from Plato’s portraits of sophists in other dialogues. This lets us see his true nature, a predatory hunter for students’ money, whose promise of political success is bait, but whose art enslaves one to the ignorance and vice of the people.