This essay explores the treatment of the relation between nature
(phusis) and norm or convention (nomos) in Democritus
and in certain Platonic dialogues. In his physical theory Democritus draws
a sharp contrast between the real nature of things and their
representation via human conventions, but in his political and ethical
theory he maintains that moral conventions are grounded in the reality of
human nature. Plato builds on that insight in the account of the nature of
morality in the myth in the Protagoras. That provides material
for a defense of morality against the attacks by Callicles in the
Gorgias and Thrasymachus and Glaucon in the Republic,
all of whom seek to use the nature-convention contrast to devalue
morality.
