Socrates and the Euthydemus

Plato's dialogue, the euthydemus, shows socrates struggling to exert influence over a young man. His opponents are two sophists named euthodemus and dionysodorus. They boast that they can teach wisdom and virtue, but what they actually do is bamboozle people with their bewildering word play and arguments. Socrates takes all this to be mere tomfoolery and chastises the brothers for not being serious. He offers to show what he means by persuading clinias to develop an interest in philosophy. The brother point out that wise people already have knowledge, so they don’t need to learn. So it must be the ignorant people