The Sophists: Protagoras

5th century Athens

• 1st “secular” culture in which arts, sciences and political concerns dominate society

• Religion still important, but increasingly questioned throughout the century

• Imperial Democracy 462-405 including Peloponnesian War 433-405

• “Greek Enlightenment” tragic and comic theater, Sophists, Socrates

Pericles of Athens (495-428)

• Co-founder of “Direct Democracy” in 462

• “President” of Athens, 445-428 BC.

• Creator of Athenian naval empire

• Built Acropolis• Central political figure

in ‘new thinking’ of sophistic era

Ode to Man(Sophocles’ Antigone)

• Many things are awesome, but none more so than man…

• Who carves the Earth with iron, planting his seed -- sallies forth in crafted ships across the infinite Sea -- yokes the stallion and fearsome bull to serve him …

• Shapes swift words that build Cities…• Rising high above his nature, he sometimes

distains Piety and Law.• Let not such a man beside thy hearth…let not

your mind turn toward such Pride…

FAMOUS SOPHISTS

– Protagoras: relativist, agnostic– Gorgias: rhetorician– Thrasymachus: rhetorician, “realist”– Antiphon rhetorician, political strategist,– Critias: atheist, leader of Thirty Tyrants– Prodicus: grammarian, theorist of religion– Hippias: polymath

Protagoras

“Man is the measure of all things; of the things that are, that and how they are; of the things that are not, that and how they are not.”

Protagoras: 4 Doctrines

1. Relativity of knowledge

2. Relativity of ethics

3. Sophistry and democracy

4. Agnosticism re: the Gods

1. Relativity of Knowledge

a. Perception: no ‘objectivity’ of sensible things & properties, vs. “Myth of the Given”

b. Science: no universality/necessity of laws

c. Metaphysics: no metaphysical realism (“Dissoi Logoi”/ “Opposing arguments”)

a. Perceptual Relativity1. Perceptual realists

• Objective properties of sense-objects, e.g. “wind is hot”

2. Perceptual anti-realists• Subjective experience of individual= prior to all knowledge-

claims• Empirical ‘truth’ = contingent, particular• Measure of empirical truth = intersubjective agreement; no

objective method of verification• ‘Reality’ is not given; it is interpreted

Question: How would Protagoras answer argument that thermometer gives us an objective reading of the temperature?

b. Protagoras on Science1. Natural science

• Intersubjective agreement re: ‘facts’• Laws = generalizations from limited experience• Therefore no universal, necessary laws of nature

2. Mathematical science knowledge “Neither are perceptible lines such as the geometer speaks of, as

Protagoras said in his refutation of the geometers, for a hoop does not touch a straight edge at a point.” • This knowledge also from sense-perception, generalization• Actual world does not conform to pure mathematics or logic• Concepts are thought differently by different subjects

Does Protagoras confuse the psychology of knowledge with the logic of knowledge (epistemology)?

c. Metaphysical relativity1. Metaphysical realism: objective truth exists re:

reality (even if we don’t know it)– Agreed upon by all Presocratics, whether materialists or

idealists, monists or pluralists, rejected by Protagoras

2. Metaphysical anti-realism: Dissoi Logoi: there are always conflicting alternative arguments– All knowledge = mind-dependent “There are no facts; only interpretations.”

Problems: • Principle of Non-Contradiction. • Does the relativist contradict himself?

2. Ethical Relativity

“King Darius explained to the Greeks that there is no universal morality, but that ‘Custom is King over all.’”

--Herodotus

Is it morally wrong?

• Taking drugs?

• Polygamy?

• Communism?

• Slavery or wars of conquest?

• Religious rule?

Dissoi Logoi

Ethical Universalism

• “moral abyss” arg

• reductionism arg

• “basic morals” arg

• examples: murder, slavery, polygamy

Ethical Relativity

• ethical diversity arg

• “prove it!” arg

• “basic morals” arg?

• examples don’t work?

3. Sophistic wisdom?

Protagoras asserts relativism, but also•Implies an “open” society better than authoritarian society•Implies “Sophist” can persuade people of what is ‘wiser’

Does Protagoras contradict himself?•If democracies encourage reason, are they better?•If Sophist persuades of what is ‘wiser’ is then also ‘better’?

4. Sophistic Critique of Religion

Prodicus (scientific-reductionist view): • “The ancients considered as gods the sun and moon, rivers, springs,

and in general all things that assist our life, just as the Egyptians deify the Nile.”

Critias (first atheist): • “A wise and clever man … invented the Gods, saying that even if

you plan evil deeds in secret, you will not escape their eye and retribution…”

Protagoras (agnostic, “secular” view): • “As for the gods, I know nothing of their existence or non-existence

or qualities. The subject is too obscure, and human life is too short.”

Conflicting PhilosophiesScientific Materialists = reality is known by science; truth is contrary to common belief.

Sophistic Relativists = there is no absolute ‘truth’ about reality; there are only beliefs, established by persuasion and force.

Religious Idealists = there is a spiritual reality, known to mystics (initiates), derived from faith or sacred authority.

Socratics