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Sophistic Ethics, Old Atheism, and "Critias" on Religion
- Classical World
- Classical Association of the Atlantic States
- Volume 105, Number 2, Winter 2012
- pp. 167-185
- 10.1353/clw.2012.0010
- Article
- Additional Information
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The famous dramatic fragment (TrGF 43 F 19), often ascribed to Critias, positing the existence of the gods as a fiction, has been widely considered a cynical, dangerous denunciation of religion per se. But the fragment's enumeration of the benefits of religion in eradicating injustice, violence, and lawlessness suggests that belief in the gods can be seen pragmatically in more positive terms. Seen more fully in its intellectual context, the piece is better understood as a paradox which attributes to religion many of the values and aims of much ethical and sophistic speculation of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.