At the beginning of Plato’s Republic (327c), Socrates and Glaucon are waylaid on their way home by Polemarchus and friends. “Do you see how many we are?” says Polemarchus. “Of course, I do” responds Socrates. “Well then, you must either be stronger than we are, or you must stay here,” says Polemarchus. “Is there not an alternative, namely that we may persuade you to let us go?” says Socrates. “Could you persuade men who do not listen?” asks Polemarchus. “No way” says Glaucon.
Dominic Scott’s book Listening to Reason in Plato and Aristotle asks the question who will listen to the arguments of Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. One might treat this as a historical question, discussing the possible role of each of these works in the curricula of Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum, respectively, and the reception of these works among later philosophers, philosophy students, and the...
