Table of Contents

POLIS

The Greek word for "city," "city-state," or "state"; the word
from which we derive the word "politics" (the discipline
that deals with governmental policy and organization).

PYTHAGOREANS

Groups of men and women who, in Plato's time, formed
secret cults devoted to the study of mathematics, music,
and philosophy. It is supposed that a man called
Pythagoras, who probably lived during the sixth century
B.C. yet whom we know almost nothing about, combined
ideas on mathematics and mysticism and was the
inspiration for the later Pythagorean mystery cults.

Another name for the method of dialectic [see Dialectic and
the Note in Book I, section 2].

SOPHISTS

Traveling lecturers and teachers who went from city to city
teaching young men the art of public speaking (rhetoric)
and the art of practical politics.

Table of Contents