THE SOPHISTS

WEEK 2
 THE SOPHISTS
Around 450 B.C., Athens became the cultural
center of the Greek world after Pericles
changed the old Oligarchy to Democracy
The events that took place in Athens led to
philosophy to take a new direction
A new group of philosophers shifted to the
study of human beings such as those that
relate to moral behaviour
 THE SOPHISTS
The transition from predominantly scientific
concerns was explained in part by the failure of
Pre-Socratic philosophers (i.e. Milesians and
Eleatics) to arrive to any uniform conception of
the cosmos
There was a social shift toward political power
and the study of rhetoric, it was no surprise,
then, that the next group of philosophers were
not really philosophers as such but rhetoricians
 THE SOPHISTS
Among these new philosophers were came to
be known as Sophists (wise guys) who came
to Athens as traveling teachers and
ambassadors
They travelled from city to city, charging
admission to their lectureslectures not on
the nature of reality or truth but on the nature
of power and persuasion
 THE SOPHISTS
Protagoras, Gorgias, and Thrasymachus were
among the greatest of these Sophists
PROTAGORAS
 PROTAGORAS
Perhaps the most famous of the Sophists was
Protagoras (ca. 490ca. 422 B.C.E.)
He taught that the way to achieve success is
through a careful and prudent acceptance of
traditional customsnot because they are
true, but because an understanding and
manipulation of them is expedient
 PROTAGORAS
For Protagoras all customs were relative, not
absolute
In fact, everything is relative to human
subjectivity
Protagorass famous claim is homo mensura
man is the measurement of all things
 PROTAGORAS
Man is the measurement of all things- by
that he meant that the question whether a
thing is right or wrong, good or bad, must
always be considered in relation to a persons
needs.
GORGIAS
 GORGIAS
He seems to have wanted to dethrone philosophy
and replace it with rhetoric
In his lectures and in a book he wrote, he
proved the following theses:
1. There is nothing.
2. If there were anything, no one could
know it.
3. If anyone did know it, no one could
communicate it.
 GORGIAS
The point, of course, is that if you can prove
these absurdities, you can prove anything
Gorgias is not teaching us some astounding
truth about reality; he is teaching us how to
win arguments, no matter how ridiculous our
thesis may be
THRASYMACHUS
 THRASYMACHUS
He is known for the claim Justice is in the
interest of the stronger. That is to say, might
makes right
According to him, all disputation about
morality is empty, except insofar as it is
reducible to a struggle for power
 THRASYMACHUS
He further pointed out that what is right is
the same everywhere, the interest of the
stronger party established in power
 References
Palmer, Donald. Looking at Philosophy: The
Unbearable Heaviness of Philosophy Made
Lighter. Fourth Edition. McGraw-Hill, 2008
STUMPF, SAMUEL ENOCH, FROM SOCRATES
TO SARTRE: A History of Philosophy. New York
Mc Graw, 2008