False Logos

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Dissoi Logos gives samples of argument that Protagoras or other Sophists may give for and against various claims on whether a true logo and a false logos are the same or different. First it must be explained that a true logos is a statement, or speech. Some say that a true logos and a false logos are different from one another, while others claim it is a twofold argument in that the two logos may also be the same. Dissoi Logoi, in the second premise, considers that the same words are used to express both the true and false logos. For example, when a logos is uttered, if the events occur, then the logos is true. However, if the events do not occur, than that same logos is false (Curd, 147 [1-2]). This demonstrates that the logos is dependent…show more content…
Just as the last example, if this act indeed did occur, then the logos is true; if it did not, then the logos is false. For the defendant however, the logos is the same and therefore that court judges the logos to be both true and false. Similar to the other examples in all regards, in the fourth premise, if individuals are sitting alongside one another, and each individual says “I am an initiate of the mysteries” as a group (Curd, 147 [4]), the only person whom this is true for will be the character of I. Only I will be truthful because it is fact that I am the only one who is, in the sense that I is me and not us. Lastly, the argument in premise five validates that as an individual grows, the logos will be both true and false. As the same man grows from youth, to boy, to man and then elder, the same logos is false when falsehood is present and true wherever truthfulness is present (Curd, 147…show more content…
They argue in premise six, which is included in the Dissoi Logoi to demonstrate the other side of the argument, that the logos cannot be both true and false because they differ in fact just as they do in name (Curd, 147 [6]). This means that the statement cannot be both true and false, instead, they would be two separate logos. In the Dissoi Logoi, a rebuttal occurs as it predisposes the principle that any logos will be both false and true. If an individual has spoken of logos’ that are true, or if he knows a man to be honest, then it follows that that same logos, or man, is also to be false, or a liar. The Sophists say, written in premise seven, that if aforementioned situation occurred, than the logos is true, yet if said situation did not occur, than that same logos is false. Therefore, it is not their name that differs, but rather the fact of the matter (Curd, 148

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