Why to Go to Study with Euthydemus?

The paper attempts to show that the purpose of the Euthydemus is not to ridicule the sophist’s art of disputation, but rather to point out the problems which serious philosophical dialectics encounters in the very essence of language, especially as concerns initiating others into this highest of all human activities. As the author sees it, the dialogue denies the possibility of teaching philosophy as the supreme human virtue and way to bliss, while explaining the paradoxical characteristics of such a virtue. This special virtue, i.e. human rationality (phronesis), is inherent in human beings; one cannot learn it extrinsically, but merely cultivate it as such. The author finally suggests further consideration of whether Plato’s concept of phronesis can be identified with his idea of the Good