Telimipos

Plato's Dialogue

Telimipos

The location is Angola, outside the consul's residence. Socrates is on his way to answer the accusation of impiety. He met Telimipos confidently arguing in front of a group of young people. Socrates, who was thinking about death, naturally seized the opportunity to discuss the subject with this man who spoke with certainty about everything.

Socrates: All men die, do you agree, Terimipos?

Telimipos: I agree.

Socrates: Then you agree, I am human.

Telimipos: I have no reason to doubt that, Socrates.

Socrates: Then you must agree, I will die.

Telimipos: I didn't say that. That's what you said. Don't put words in my mouth.

Socrates: I beg your pardon, Telimipos, I am only deducing.

Telimipos: You're a Stawman.

SOCRATES: But really reasonable people would agree--

Telimipos: Ha, the no-true-Macedonian fallacy.

SOCRATES: But, Telimipos, considering the form of logic...

Telimipos: Define "forms of logic".

Socrates: ...you must either accept the conclusion or reject at least one of the premises.

Telimipos: False dichotomy.

Socrates: I see, Telimipos, you're a fool.

Telimipos: This is an appeal to the person (ad hominem).

So Socrates personally attacked Telimipos with a brick. The ungodly charge was dropped.

Logical fallacies mentioned in the conversation (refer to Wikipedia):

Scarecrow Fallacy: Attacking an argument that is not made by others.

No Real Macedonian Fallacy: Same as No Real Scots Fallacy or Appeal to Purity Fallacy, which refers to making false generalization claims about how "true X" is, while so-called "true" is used purely to exclude X. Counter example in .

False dilemma: either is black or white, or either, that is, it is either one or the other, ignoring that there are other possibilities.

Appeal to the person: that is, to treat people wrong, to use nonsense, to declare that someone has certain personal characteristics, to express or imply that their claims are not desirable.

(Translated by Wang Liqiu from "Thermippos—The Complete Dialogue" published by Deogowulf, see the original text at http://curmudgeonjoy.blogspot.com/2012/08/thermippos-complete-dialogue.html )