Abstract

The following analysis attempts to make several interrelated points. The first is to interpret a line in Plato's Phaedo as a response to Aristophanes' ancient conservative view, i.e., that philosophy undermines traditional views and, a fortiori, morality and esthetics as well. The second is that the line is doubly ironic such that the second turn of the irony is Plato's reply to the ancient liberal view represented by the Sophists — the view that reality, morality and esthetics are only matters of opinion since mere are no transcendent points of reference. Protagoras' dictum that man is the measure of all things means that only immanence is possible.