More than half of Plato’s Euthydemus consists of the display of eristic, the name Socrates gives to the skill demonstrated by the two other main characters, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus. The brothers’ way of arguing has often been dismissed as fallacious or trivial. However, scholars increasingly suggest that their practice of eristic reflects deeper commitments, linking them to Megaric, Eleatic, or Heraclitean thought.

This talk proposes a new approach to identifying the brothers’ philosophical commitments by focusing on the doctrine Socrates attributes to Euthydemus in the Cratylus: that “everything belongs equally to everything at the same time and always” (286d).

To support this, I first analyze historical testimonies, concluding that Euthydemus was a serious intellectual, though little is known about his doctrines. Next, I examine what the Euthydemus suggests about the brothers’ philosophical commitments and discuss the three existing main hypotheses in the research literature. Finally, I develop my own hypothesis, focusing on the ‘universal attribution doctrine,’ Euthydemus’ doctrine in the Cratylus. I argue that a commitment to this doctrine can account for the brothers’ ostensible disregard for contradiction, verbal precision, and statement qualifiers, and it also explains an otherwise obscure claim that Socrates makes in Euthydemus 303d5–e2.