A clear and student-friendly explanation of the Sophists, their ideas on rhetoric, skepticism, relativism, and how they influenced Socrates, Plato, and Greek philosophy.
Table of Contents
Rise of Athens and the Sophists
- After the Persian Wars, Greece achieved victory and Athens became a very powerful city-state.
- Under the leadership of Pericles, Athens entered its Golden Age, becoming wealthy due to trade.
- Athens practiced direct democracy, where citizens directly voted on political issues.
- Political participation was open to all free male citizens, regardless of family background or property.
- Any person skilled in speaking and influencing the public could gain political power in Athens.
- There was no formal education system; people learned from family or by working with knowledgeable individuals.
- The new democratic environment created a need for special training in reasoning, speaking, and debate.
- To meet this need, a group of traveling teachers called Sophists emerged, who taught knowledge and skills for a fee.
- Among them, the most famous and influential Sophist was Protagoras, about whom Plato writes in his dialogue Protagoras.
Summary
Athens became powerful and prosperous after the Persian Wars and developed a direct democracy where speaking ability became key to gaining influence. Because there was no organized education system, teachers called Sophists appeared to train citizens in public speaking and reasoning, with Protagoras as the most prominent among them.
Socrates, Hippocrates, and the Sophists
- One morning, Hippocrates comes to Socrates’ house very early, excited to share the news that Protagoras has arrived in the city.
- Hippocrates admires Protagoras deeply and believes he is truly wise; he wants to become wise like him.
- He is willing to pay all his money, even borrow from friends, to learn from Protagoras.
- This shows the strong attraction among young Athenians towards Sophists and their education.
- Socrates asks Hippocrates whether he knows what Protagoras actually teaches, and Hippocrates admits he does not know.
- Socrates takes Hippocrates to Protagoras, where Protagoras explains that his teaching helps students become successful on personal, social, and political levels.
- In Athens’ democracy, being able to speak well and influence people was necessary for gaining social respect and political power.
- The word Sophist comes from the Greek sophos, meaning “wise” or “intelligent”.
- Over time, however, the word “sophist” came to refer to someone who uses clever but false arguments to deceive others — a meaning that developed later.
Summary
This section shows how young Athenians admired the Sophists, especially Protagoras, because they offered education that helped people succeed in democratic Athens. Socrates questions whether people understand what they are learning, while Protagoras claims to teach the skills needed for personal, social, and political success. The meaning of the term “Sophist” later changed to imply deceptive argumentation.
Meaning and Scope of Rhetoric
- Rhetoric means the art of speaking in an effective and influential manner.
- It involves using words to change the listener’s emotions, thoughts, or decisions.
- Politicians, salespeople, and public speakers often use rhetoric to persuade others.
- Rhetoric is not only about speaking; it includes personality, behavior, facial expressions, logic, and emotional appeal.
- It is a broad skill used in politics, advertising, teaching, court debates, media, writing, and everyday life.
- People encounter rhetoric many times daily, often without realizing it.
- Clickbait YouTube titles are simple examples of rhetoric, designed to trigger curiosity, excitement, or fear.
- Labels like “bestselling book” influence buyers emotionally, even though high sales do not guarantee high content quality.
Summary
Rhetoric is the art of influencing others through speech, expression, and presentation. It plays a major role in many fields and affects us daily, often without our awareness.
Rhetoric as the Key Skill in Democracy
- Sophists taught many subjects like mathematics, astronomy, music, and polity, but rhetoric was considered the most important.
- Gorgias was a well-known sophist who taught only rhetoric, showing how central this subject was.
- In Athens’ democracy, many decisions were made in large public assemblies where citizens listened to both sides before voting on matters.
- If a person could present their case clearly and persuasively, they could win support from the audience and succeed socially or politically.
- Therefore, rhetoric became the skill that determined success in court, politics, and public debate.
- Sophists trained their students to argue from both sides of any issue, similar to how modern lawyers defend either party in a case.
- A famous story about Protagoras and his student shows this idea:
- A poor student asks Protagoras to teach him how to argue in court. They agree that the student will pay his fee only after he wins his first case.
- The student completes his training but avoids taking any cases. Protagoras waits, but since no case is taken, no payment is made.
- So Protagoras takes the student to court to claim his fee.
- The student argues: If I win, the court will say I do not have to pay. If I lose, I still do not pay because I have not won my first case yet. So in both situations, I should not pay.
- Protagoras replies: If you lose, you will pay because the court orders you. If you win, you must pay because you have now won your first case. So in both situations, you must pay.
- This example shows how both sides can use logic to appear correct, raising the question: which argument is truly valid?
Summary
Rhetoric was central in Athenian democracy because success depended on convincing an audience. Sophists trained students to argue effectively from any side, as shown in the story of Protagoras and his student, where both presented logically strong but opposite arguments. This highlights the deeper issue of how persuasion and truth may differ.
Sophists and Skepticism
- Sophists were also skeptics, meaning they questioned and doubted claims instead of accepting them easily.
- The term skepticism comes from Greek and means to examine, question, or doubt something.
- One form is common sense skepticism, where we doubt everyday claims such as advertisements or political promises. This is considered healthy and reasonable.
- Another form is philosophical skepticism, where doubt is applied to well-accepted beliefs and established ideas.
- Philosophers use this type of skepticism as a method to test and analyze assumptions and arguments.
- Example: Rene Descartes doubted everything that could be doubted in order to find a knowledge that is absolutely certain.
- Example: David Hume questioned the idea of cause and effect, showing how our beliefs about causation are not as clear as they seem.
- Philosophical skepticism helps us avoid blind belief and encourages deeper thinking and analysis.
- However, absolute skepticism goes further and claims that certain knowledge is impossible, and that we cannot truly know anything with full certainty.
- This extreme view becomes problematic because it denies the possibility of real knowledge itself.
Summary
Sophists practiced skepticism, questioning beliefs instead of accepting them blindly. While common sense and philosophical skepticism help us think more deeply, absolute skepticism claims that no certain knowledge is possible, which creates a difficult and problematic position.
Sophists and the Question of Knowledge
- Sophists also practiced skepticism, and they questioned many accepted beliefs.
- When Protagoras was asked about the gods, he said he did not know whether they exist or not.
- He explained that human limitations make it difficult to know the truth about divine existence.
- Because of this statement, many people called him an atheist, though he did not deny gods; he was actually agnostic (uncertain about their existence).
- It is said that Protagoras was once expelled from Athens and many of his books were burned, possibly due to these views.
- Sophists believed that certain or absolute knowledge was not possible.
- Therefore, they did not use logic to discover truth, but to present and defend arguments effectively.
- Their famous idea was: how to make the weaker argument appear stronger.
- This means using rhetoric to make even a weak claim sound convincing, mainly for personal or practical benefit.
Summary
Sophists doubted the possibility of certain knowledge, as shown by Protagoras’s agnostic stance on the gods. Instead of seeking truth, they focused on using logic and rhetoric to make arguments persuasive, even turning weaker arguments into stronger ones.
Protagoras and Relativism
- Protagoras gave a famous statement: “Man is the measure of all things.”
- Here, measure means the standard we use to decide what is true or false, right or wrong.
- This means that the truth of anything depends on the human being who experiences it.
- Example: If one person feels the wind as cold and another feels it as warm, both experiences are true for each person.
- There is no single answer to whether the wind is “really” cold or warm; it depends on individual perception.
- Therefore, truth becomes personal. What seems true to you is true for you, and what seems true to me is true for me.
- Protagoras believed that we cannot know reality as it truly is; we only know our experience of it.
- Since everyone’s experience is different, opinions and truths will also differ from person to person.
- This position is known as relativism, where truth is not fixed but varies with individuals.
Summary
Protagoras argued that truth depends on human experience, which differs from person to person. His idea that “man is the measure of all things” leads to relativism, where what is true for one person may not be true for another, because each person’s perception and experience are unique.
Relativism in Everyday Life and Culture
- Relativism means that right and wrong, truth and falsehood do not have a fixed, universal standard.
- These ideas depend on the person and their personal experiences.
- The same food can taste good to one person and bad to another; the same movie can be liked by one and disliked by another.
- Beliefs also differ: one person may believe in God, while another may not, and both see their viewpoint as valid.
- Relativism also appears across cultures. Practices like burial vs cremation, or eating beef vs avoiding it, differ widely.
- Beauty standards vary: some cultures value slim bodies, others prefer heavier bodies; some value fair skin, others admire dark skin.
- People tend to see their own cultural practices as correct, and other cultures’ practices as strange or wrong.
- When truth is seen as relative, logic is used not to discover what is objectively true, but to convince others and gain support.
- Under relativism, it becomes difficult to separate knowledge from opinion, because everything depends on personal or cultural viewpoints.
- As a result, what a society believes becomes accepted as the truth for that society, with no higher standard beyond those beliefs.
Summary
Relativism states that truth depends on individuals and cultures rather than universal standards. This leads to differences in taste, beliefs, and social practices, and encourages the use of logic mainly for persuasion. It also blurs the line between knowledge and opinion, making each group’s beliefs seem like the only truth for them.
Gorgias and the Denial of Truth
- Gorgias was a sophist who taught only rhetoric and was also a skeptic.
- While Protagoras said “everything is true” (truth depends on personal experience), Gorgias took the opposite view.
- Gorgias argued that nothing is true, and he expressed this through three famous statements:
- Nothing exists.
- If anything exists, it is unknowable.
- If it is knowable, it cannot be communicated.
- This means that even if something were real, humans cannot truly know it, and even if someone knows it, they cannot fully express it to others.
- Gorgias was influenced by Zeno and used complex reasoning to support his claims.
- His main point was that knowledge is impossible, and logic can be used to make any argument appear true or false.
- Therefore, if Protagoras said every opinion is true, Gorgias responded that every opinion is false, because there is no reliable knowledge behind opinions.
- His third claim about the limits of communication later becomes important in the 20th century, especially when discussing thinkers like Wittgenstein.
Summary
Gorgias argued that knowledge and truth are impossible: nothing truly exists, we cannot know it, and even if we did, we could not communicate it. His view contrasts with Protagoras’s relativism and shows the extreme skeptical side of sophistic thinking.
Physis and Nomos
- To explain relativism, Sophists discussed the difference between physis and nomos.
- Physis means nature. It refers to those features of the world that do not depend on human choice, culture, or belief.
- Natural laws like gravity belong to physis — humans do not create or change them.
- Nomos means custom, convention, or tradition. These are the rules and practices that humans decide and create.
- Examples of nomos include social rituals, tax systems, dress codes, and ways of greeting (like handshake or namaste).
- A single situation can include both: a car moves according to natural laws (physis), but which side of the road we drive on is decided by society (nomos).
- Hunger is natural (physis), but what we eat, and how we eat (with hands or with a spoon), depends on culture and tradition (nomos).
- Sophists used this distinction to show that many things we consider “right” or “proper” are not natural, but cultural choices, and therefore can vary from person to person or culture to culture.
Summary
Physis refers to natural facts that exist independently of human choice, while nomos refers to cultural rules and customs created by society. Sophists used this difference to support relativism, showing that many beliefs and practices are not universal but depend on cultural context.
Physis and Nomos in Moral Questions
- In matters of nomos, we ask “What should we do?” because nomos involves choices, rules, and values that humans decide.
- In physis, there is no choice; natural facts simply exist, independent of human opinion or culture.
- The question of whether God exists by physis or nomos shows this difference:
- If God exists by physis, then God exists independently of human belief.
- If God exists by nomos, then God’s existence depends on human belief and cultural tradition.
- A similar question was raised in a discussion where someone asked: if all humans disappeared, would God still exist? This directly reflects the physis vs. nomos distinction.
- The same debate applies to virtue and justice: are they natural realities (physis) or cultural constructions (nomos)?
- Sophists generally argued that justice is nomos because laws, governments, and democratic rules are created by humans.
- Therefore, they said that right and wrong should be judged according to the laws of the state, not any universal moral truth.
- However, philosophers like Heraclitus disagreed. He argued that human laws are based on a deeper divine law (logos) that is the same for everyone.
- According to this view, a court decision could be wrong if it does not align with this universal logos, even if the law supports it.
Summary
Nomos involves human-made rules and choices, while physis refers to natural realities beyond human control. Sophists believed justice comes from nomos, meaning it is created by society, but philosophers like Heraclitus argued that justice has a universal foundation in divine law (logos).
Physis and Nomos in the Antigone Play
- The difference between physis (nature/divine law) and nomos (human-made law) is shown clearly in the play Antigone by Sophocles.
- After a civil war, the king orders that the dead body of the opposing leader should not be buried, which was considered extremely disrespectful in Greek culture.
- The leader’s sister, Antigone, refuses the king’s order and buries her brother’s body.
- When questioned, Antigone says she disobeyed the king because human laws cannot overrule divine laws.
- She argues that the king is only a human, but the duty to honor the dead comes from Zeus and the divine order.
- This reflects the belief, also found in Heraclitus, that there are higher laws (logos) above any man-made laws.
- According to this view, if a human law violates divine principles, it should be broken.
- Protagoras, however, believed that one should follow the laws of the society they live in, since those laws define justice.
- Another sophist, Antiphon, gave a different view: he said when you are alone, follow the laws of nature, but when in society, follow social laws.
- This implies that if someone breaks social laws without being caught, then there is no issue, because social laws are only binding when observed by others.
Summary
The story of Antigone shows the conflict between divine laws (physis) and human laws (nomos). While some thinkers said justice comes from society’s rules, others believed higher natural or divine laws must be followed, even if this means disobeying the state.
Callicles and Socrates on Justice
- In Plato’s dialogue Gorgias, Callicles (a student influenced by sophists) debates with Socrates about justice.
- Callicles argues that justice is not natural, but a nomos — a convention created by people.
- According to him, the majority are weak and they create moral rules to protect themselves from the strong.
- The strong have greater physical or mental ability, work harder, achieve more, and naturally rise higher.
- The weak, unable to compete, create laws of equality to limit the strong and keep everyone on the same level.
- Therefore, Callicles says that social morality is made by the weak, not by nature.
- In nature (physis), the strong survive and flourish, while the weak fall behind — this is natural justice.
- So, Callicles distinguishes between:
- Natural justice (physis): the strong should rule and achieve more.
- Conventional justice (nomos): society’s rules that force equality and hold the strong back.
- He believes weak people criticize the strong because they are ashamed of their own weakness.
- This idea later appears strongly in the philosophy of Nietzsche in the 19th century.
Summary
Callicles claims that justice based on equality is a human-made convention created by the weak to restrain the strong. According to him, natural justice allows the strong to rise and succeed, while social morality tries to suppress this natural difference.
Other Sophists and Their Views
- Prodicus is known for his theory on the origin of religion.
- He suggested that early people worshipped the sun, moon, rivers, and mountains because these natural elements provided what was necessary for survival.
- Later, people began to worship inventors and those who introduced useful arts like farming or metalwork, because these contributions improved life.
- Prodicus argued that prayer has no real benefit, which led to conflict between him and the authorities in Athens.
- Hippias was famous for his wide-ranging knowledge, including mathematics, grammar, rhetoric, astronomy, music, and mythology. He represented the ideal of a “universal scholar.”
- Thrasymachus claimed that power defines morality.
- His view can be summarized as “might is right” — whoever is powerful decides what is considered just or unjust.
- This means moral rules are not based on truth or fairness, but on the interests of those who hold power.
Summary
Several sophists contributed different ideas: Prodicus explained religion as a human creation, Hippias represented broad intellectual skill, and Thrasymachus argued that power determines morality. These views further show how sophists emphasized human influence rather than universal or divine truths.
Key Ideas of Sophist Philosophy
- Sophist thought centers around four major concepts: Rhetoric, Skepticism, Relativism, and Physis vs. Nomos.
- Rhetoric is the art of influencing others through speech and reasoning, used to persuade an audience.
- Skepticism means doubting accepted ideas and questioning whether true knowledge is actually possible.
- Relativism states that truth and moral values vary from person to person and culture to culture; there is no absolute standard.
- Physis refers to natural laws that exist independently of humans, while Nomos refers to customs and rules created by society.
- Important Sophists discussed:
- Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things.” Truth depends on individual experience (relativism).
- Gorgias: Claimed that nothing is truly knowable or communicable (skepticism).
- Callicles: Argued that nature favors the strong, and social morality is created by the weak to restrict the strong.
- Thrasymachus: “Might is right” — those in power define what is considered just.
- Sophist philosophy introduced a major shift in the direction of thought, moving away from earlier attempts to understand nature and toward questions about human society, values, and power.
Summary
This section reviews the core ideas of Sophist philosophy: rhetoric for persuasion, skepticism about knowledge, relativism about truth, and the contrast between natural laws and human-made customs. Key Sophists like Protagoras, Gorgias, Callicles, and Thrasymachus each shaped these ideas, influencing the development of later philosophical debates.
Shift from Metaphysics to Epistemology
- Earlier philosophers focused on metaphysics — searching for the ultimate reality (water, air, fire, apeiron, being, atom, etc.).
- Despite many attempts, no final or satisfying answer was found.
- Seeing this failure, Sophists questioned whether reality can be known at all.
- Sense perception was unreliable, and reason also failed to give certainty, so doubt increased.
- Because of this, philosophy shifted from metaphysics (What is reality?) to epistemology (Can we know anything?).
- This means the focus moved from object (the world) to subject (the human knower).
- Sophists traveled to many cultures and observed that moral values differ from place to place.
- This led to relativism: moral values have no universal foundation; they vary with culture and experience.
- If we cannot know reality, and moral values are relative, then Sophists suggested focusing on practical skills, especially rhetoric (language used for persuasion).
- As a result, Athens began to lose confidence in its traditional values and beliefs.
- Without a strong metaphysical foundation, moral and cultural structures weakened.
- This weakening contributed to the decline of Athens, followed by the war between Athens and Sparta in 431 BC.
Summary
Sophists shifted philosophy from studying reality to questioning the possibility of knowledge. This led to skepticism and relativism, weakening Athens’ traditional moral foundations. As practical skills like rhetoric became more important than shared values, the cultural confidence of Athens declined, contributing to its eventual collapse.
Criticism and Contribution of the Sophists
- Socrates and Plato strongly criticized the Sophists for focusing only on the subjective side of knowledge (what we think) and ignoring the objective side (what reality actually is).
- Sophists talked about success and living a better life, but they did not provide a metaphysical foundation for these ideas.
- However, looking at the history of philosophy, Sophists expanded philosophical inquiry by raising new and important questions.
- They shifted attention from cosmology and metaphysics to human issues like knowledge, justice, values, and moral decision-making.
- Their skepticism pushed philosophers to re-examine basic assumptions, beliefs, and cultural traditions.
- By emphasizing rhetoric, they encouraged the study of language, logic, and reasoning, which became essential in later philosophy.
- The problems they introduced eventually led to the philosophies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who sought to answer and correct the issues raised by the Sophists.
- Therefore, while Sophists are criticized, they also played a key role in advancing philosophical thought and shaping future discussions.
Summary
Socrates and Plato criticized the Sophists for lacking objective grounding, but the Sophists brought major shifts in philosophy by raising questions about knowledge, morality, logic, and human values. Their influence pushed later philosophers to create deeper and more structured theories, helping philosophy grow in new directions.
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