22 th Mai Savle Tsereteli Institute of Philosophy organized a public lecture of Prof. Dr. Johan Tralau (University of Upsala) on the topic: “The Beginnings of Political and Moral Philosophy II: Why Aischylos’ Oresteia may be more important than Protagoras”
In this lecture, Professor Tralau searched for internal critique in early Greek literature. He contended that some of the early poets, Theognis and Sappho, wereimportant phases in a history of ‘internal critique’, and that this was, in all likelihood, likewise true of the 5th century BC philosopher and sophist Protagoras. Yet the testimonies and fragments were contradictory and uncertain when it comes to Protagoras. As Professor Tralau explained this is, however, not true of the Athenian dramatist Aischylos. he suggested that his Oresteia, staged in 458 BC, features the very first instance in extant Greek literature in which a character tells another person that his or her argumentation is logically inconsistent. The trilogy is full of blood, revenge, murder, human sacrifice and immorality. Yet it is also a spectacular moment in the history of normative theory, of political, moral and legal reflection, as well as in the evolution of theoretical terminology.
