Hippias Minor (On the Lie) with Dr. Grabowski and Friends

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Dcn. Garlick, Dr. Larson, Dr. Grabowski, and Mr. Thomas Lackey discuss the short, strange, and forgotten dialogue of HIppias Minor or "On the Lie." 8 Questions on Hippias Minor Study Guide Check Ascend out on X, YouTube, Facebook, and More! Plato’s Hippias Minor is a short, strange dialogue with a traditional subtitle that cuts straight to the point: “On the Lie.” After the boastful sophist Hippias finishes a public speech ranking Achilles the best and Odysseus the most *polytropos*—the man of twists and turns—Socrates is drawn into a conversation that begins with Homer and ends in one of the deepest *aporias* of the early dialogues. What starts as a dispute over who is the better man, the straightforward Achilles or the wily Odysseus, quickly becomes a rigorous examination of voluntary versus involuntary wrongdoing, the nature of knowledge and power, and the unsettling claim that the man who does injustice on purpose is better than the one who does it by accident. Deacon and the guests work through the dialogue’s sharp arguments and its surprising relevance. The conversation exposes the limits of treating virtue as mere knowledge plus power, raises the question of whether a just person might ever speak falsely for a good end, and serves as a genuine appetizer for the noble lie in the *Republic*. Come listen—and discover why even Socrates, at the end, cannot agree with himself. **Chapters** 00:00 Introduction to Hippias Minor and its Context 04:55 Setting the Scene: Hippias' Speech and Socrates' Role 09:22 Hippias' Boasts and Socrates' Irony 17:55 The Homeric Heroes: Achilles and Odysseus 25:04 Knowledge, Power, and the Art of Lying 36:15 The Distinction Between Capacity and Action 44:53 The Nature of Truth and Falsehood in Socratic Dialogue 46:43 Conclusion: What Socrates Reveals About Knowledge and Lies 02:39 Socrates' questioning of Hippias and the nature of virtue 04:55 The analogy of athletic competitions and the concept of justice 07:57 Socrates' discussion on voluntary and involuntary actions 12:05 The role of knowledge and capacity in moral actions 15:34 Hippias' understanding of justice and its relation to power 19:50 The concept of noble lies and pedagogical deception 25:04 The absence of forms and gods in the dialogue 30:14 The deeper meaning of Socratic ignorance and self-awareness 34:54 The significance of the question: Is justice knowledge or power? 39:51 Conclusion: What we learn about virtue, knowledge, and truth **Keywords** Plato’s Hippias Minor, Lesser Hippias, On the Lie, Hippias of Elis, Achilles and Odysseus, polytropos, voluntary and involuntary wrongdoing, voluntary liar, Socratic dialogue, aporetic dialogue, forgotten Platonic dialogues, noble lie, Republic, virtue is knowledge, knowledge and power, sophist, polymath, Eudicus, Embassy scene Iliad, teleology, Forms, Socratic irony, beneficial falsehood, Dr. Frank Grabowski, Dr. Brett Larson, Thomas Lackey, Ascend the Great Books Podcast, political philosophy, Allan Bloom, Roots of Political Philosophy. Next week we discuss Plato's Ion!