Peter Jones

From Socrates to Boris

By putting the case both for and against the EU, he was following good Greek practice

issue 22 October 2016

In writing an article that argued both for and against the European Union, Boris Johnson was following a solidly classical precedent — that the finest exponents of the art of persuasion were those able to argue equally convincingly on both sides of any question.

An anonymous document entitled Dissoi Logoi (‘Two-sided arguments’, c.

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