It all comes back to education in The Clouds. The question of how best to prepare people mentally for the challenges of life is a huge question (like, just in general), and Aristophanes is definitely taking aim at particular philosophies and teachings that he thinks are potentially harmful to young people. The play lampoons Socrates's fictional school and its instruction as silly at best and morally harmful at worse.
You see, Socrates is portrayed as pushing the Worse Argument, which basically involves using rhetoric to bring people over to your point of view, regardless of how moral what you think or want actually is. The play shows us the potentially devastating consequences of learning and buying into this idea when Pheidippides uses it to justify beating his father, who then totally renounces his enthusiasm for Socrates's "Thinkery."
Questions About Education
- Is education portrayed as overall helpful or dangerous? Or is it entirely dependent on the school/teacher/situation?
- Are there any good teacher or educational figures in the play? What about Better Argument—how much "better" does he seem than Worse Argument?
- Chaerephon (Socrates's partner in crime, er, education) is mentioned but never appears in the play. Why do you think that is?
Chew on This
Since Better Argument is revealed as flimsy when he flips over to Worse Argument's side, it appears that Better Argument is no "better" than Worse Argument.
Better Argument is better than Worse Argument; his flip to WA's side simply emphasizes how powerful Worse Argument is at fooling people (not how weak BA is).