Source edition
Platonis Opera, Tomus III: Tetralogia V-VII. Burnet, John, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA (per Perseus's terms)
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This philosophical dialogue features Socrates and the Sophist Hippias engaging in a discussion that begins with a comparison of Homeric heroes and shifts toward the nature of truth, falsehood, and the virtue of the human soul. Set in Olympia, the dialogue starts with Hippias defining Achilles as truthful and Odysseus as a liar; however, Socrates argues, using various arts and sciences as examples, that the person capable of speaking the truth is also the one best equipped to lie voluntarily. The debate intensifies as Socrates proposes the paradoxical idea that someone who does wrong or makes mistakes voluntarily is better than someone who does so involuntarily. Through examining bodily actions, skills, and the capacity of the soul, they are led to the absurd conclusion that only a good person can commit injustice intentionally. In the end, both interlocutors are left in deep perplexity (aporia), unable to resolve the contradiction, and the dialogue concludes without a definitive answer.