“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”

~ Alfred North Whitehead

I’ve been enjoying my Plato Project where I’ve decided to read through the Complete Works of Plato. I’ve read 9 dialogues so far and realized I needed to take a step back and learn more about the philosopher himself. This was the perfect book for that endeavor.

Robin Waterfield covers the basic known facts about the life of Plato, his friendships, his practical application of philosophy, especially with the king of Syracuse, and the Academy he started in Athens. It is a fascinating look at how Plato’s life fed into his philosophy.

In this episode, I cover the main things I learned about Plato and share the One Thing that stuck out the most.

Enjoy!

I’m making the wild assumption that you like books. Perhaps that’s because you like what’s inside of books - the stories, ideas, information, history. But do you ever just stop and think about the book itself? The physical book that you hold in your hand?

Joel J Miller has a book coming out this Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 called The Idea Machine: How Books Built Our World and Shape Our Future. It’s a book about the book. It’s a richly researched account of the history of the book through the ages, how Christians played a large role in its eventual format, and how the organization and categorization of ancient and moderns libraries led to the A.I. tools of today.

I read an advance copy of the book a few months back and absolutely loved it. It gave me a new appreciation for book, the perfect idea transfer technology. In this podcast episode, I share some of my favorite ideas from the book and tie in some things Joel spoke about during a book event I attended on Thursday evening, November 13th.

If you live in the Nashville area, Joel will be at Landmark Booksellers on the book’s release date of Tuesday, November 18th at 6pm. Jeff Goins will conduct the interview.

You can also order a signed copy of the book from Landmark Booksellers. I think you’ll enjoy it.

The goal of this dialogue is to define the Sophist. We’ve seen the Sophist pop up in Greek Tragedy and Comedy and it’s never a pretty picture. They are often contrasted with the Philosopher, the true lover of wisdom, and are denigrated as those who have the appearance of wisdom. They are known for charging money to teach their students how to argue a point, irrespective of its truth.

In attempting to define the Sophist, Plato must overcome a snag put forward by the philosopher Parmenides. Parmenides has stated that false statements are impossible:

“This should not ever prevail in your thought: that the things that are not, are; rather do you keep your mind well shut off from just this way of searching.”

Basically, don’t think or talk about things that have no being; things that don’t exist. However, if that is the case, there is nothing false and everything a person says is true. Everything is relative.

In order to define the Sophist, Plato must show that something that is not, is. He does this by saying that the false is something other than or different from the true. Plato’s Forms must be true. Do things that are false also have Forms? No, they are simply other than or different from Forms.

Therefore, the Sophist is one who makes false imitations of true things. He is not a philosopher.

This dialogue hurt by brain. I read it three times using different translations in an attempt to struggle through it and try and understand it. I share what I learned in this episode and I hope the work makes it so that you see the dialogue in a fresh way. As always, if I’ve gotten anything incorrect, please help me learn by commenting below.

Show Notes:

Book Versions I Read:

* Plato Complete Works - edited by John M. Cooper - translated by Nicholas P. White

* Plato: Collected Dialogues - edited by Edith Hamilton & Huntington Cairns - translated by F.M. Cornford

* Plato Sophist: The Professor of Wisdom by Eva Brann, Peter Kalkavage, Eric Salem

The Division Thicket (from the introduction in Plato Sophist: The Professor of Wisdom):