Given the
troubling similarities between Socrates’ original conversation with
Thrasymachus and the eventual degenerative properties of the City-In-Words,
some questions arise on a diagetic level.
What would Socrates have discussed
with those present if Thrasymachus had never arrived (or had given up his
position without explaining it/defending it)? Would Glaucon/Adeimantus have
responded in a similar manner to another Socratic conversation (as tailored as The Republic is in its current form to
their specifications)?
A fair question -- and I think we might usefully see Socrates' refutation (or taming) of Thrasymachos as a microcosmic version of the larger argument (though neither seems actually disposative). But recalling that the whole dialogue is a literary construction, it seems propitious that Plato places Thrasymachos where he does...
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