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Thrasymachus of Chalcedon was a 5th-century BCE Greek sophist and rhetorician best known from Plato's Republic, where he argues that justice is merely the advantage of the stronger party—a position that frames morality as a mask for power. Beyond his role as Socrates' adversary in the Republic, he was a significant theorist of rhetoric whose innovations in prose rhythm and emotional appeal influenced Greek oratory.
Argued that 'justice is the advantage of the stronger,' a foundational text in political realism and moral skepticism
Pioneered techniques in Greek rhetorical prose, particularly periodic sentence structure and emotional appeal
Challenged Socratic and conventional Greek moral assumptions about the intrinsic value of justice
Influenced later Cynics, Epicureans, and modern realist political philosophy through his skepticism about conventional morality