Verso una concezione agonistica del dialogo: una prospettiva neosofistica

The aim of my paper is both historiographical and theoretical. From the historiographical point of view, it proposes a reconsideration of the opposition between Socratic and sophistic dialogue with specific reference to one particularly important aspect: the idea that Socratic dialogue is oriented to-wards reaching truth, while the sophistic one has the only aim of success or rather, to be right. However, from a theoretical point of view, starting from the characteristics attributed to sophistic dialogue, it aims to show how it is possible to outline a theoretical frame which is more suitable for the practice of dialogue in a society like the present one which, to quote Rawls, faces the fact of pluralism daily. At the heart of the method proposed by the Sophists is the idea that dialogue has an intrinsically agonistic dimension. From this perspective, however, it is not a question of renouncing the notion of truth. As I try to demonstrate, the Sophists’ practice of dialogue is oriented contemporaneously towards truth and success.