Hippias Research Taylor Hoogendoorn 2.22.14 Dr. Schultz, I have consulted a number of sources regarding Hippas, a Sophist about whom our reader provides very limited information and even fewer aphorisms. Sources consulted are listed below, although I will more formally cite them in my official bibliography: 1) Curd Reader 2) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 3) Plato's Hippias Minor 4) "The Lesser Hippias" by Theodore de Laguna, a journal article 5) "On the authenticity of Hippias major" by Grube, a journal article 6) "The Sophists" by WKC Guthrie, a book 7) "The Greek Sophists" by Dillon and Gergle, a book 8) "The Sophists: an Introduction" by Patricia O'Grady, a book 9) "The Sophistic Movement" by Kerferd, a book Of note is the fact that almost all of my thoughts on Hippias derive from my readings of these secondary sources. Curd just didn't provide much information on Hippias beyond grounds for rampant speculation. After consulting these sources, I have determined to spend some time with the class discussing some of the following points: 1) I would like to give background on Hippias, and possibly brief background on the Sophists 1a)I would also like to talk about Plato's disregard for Hippias and the lens through which we must read Plato's criticism 1b)I would like to talk about Hippias's starting of the study of the history of Philosophy. Although I have not found very much tangible information on this topic, it seems downright negligent to not mention this point in a course on the history of philosophy 2) I would like to mention briefly the controversy surrounding the validity of Plato's Hippias Major and give a brief outline of that text 3) I would like to discuss briefly the content of Hippias Minor, possibly an interactive activity 4) I would like to talk about Hippias's geometric discovery, the Quadratrix, and how it may be significant to the three major geometric problems questioned by the ancient world. 5) Finally, I would like to talk about Hippias brief mention of legal thoery in the second aphorism from Curd. It seems that Hippias has a number of interesting points. The first is his skepticism toward mannmade laws and reliance on or adherence with the natural law. There are some fairly interesting ties I can make between this point and a couple of other legal and political concepts that I have been studying in other classes. This discussion would be tangential to Hippias actual writings, but would be both an interesting and relevant way to teach the class. With your permission, I will cite Thomas Sowell's "A conflict of Visions" and talk about how that may tie into Hippias's legal philosophy. This will likely be the most extended and interesting portion of my presentation. There was indication that a post of this nature would count as a blog entry; if so, would you please confirm that fact in the comments. Thanks! Taylor