Archetypes of Wisdom Douglas J. Soccio Chapter 4: The Sophist: Protagoras

The Advent of Professional Educators While we tend to think of ancient Athens as the symbol of democracy, it was in many respects chauvinistic. Full citizenship was confined to males from aristocratic families. And wealth dictated who could participate as equals. The struggle for political power required the ability to convince others of the strength of one’s position. Hence, the value of rhetorical skills, which the Sophists taught to those young men of Athens whose families could afford to pay the price.

Enter the Sophist In earlier times, the sophos had been sages, concerned with the study of nature. The “new sophos” of the 5 th century B.C. – now called a Sophist – thought that it impossible to discover “The Truth”, and so turned their attention to the study of human life and conduct. In addition to the art of argumentation, these traveling teachers gave lessons in what today would be called anthropology, psychology, and sociology – thus enabling their students to fare well in the socio-political marketplace (since whoever won the won the argument “won the day” as well. For that reason, the Sophists might well be thought of as the first social scientists, with the best of them being much sought after and highly paid.

Ethnocentrism A cultural center of its time, Athens attracted people from all around the Mediterranean and parts of Asia. And those who considered themselves “original, true Athenians” grew uncomfortable and defensive. Social scientists now call this attitude ethnocentrism. From Greek roots meaning “the race or group is the center,” ethnocentric individuals see their ways as inherently superior to all others. They believe that their religion, for example, is the one true religion, that their own practices are right or natural, while those of others are wrong or deviant.

Barbarians The Greeks of this time were so ethnocentric that they invented the term barbarian to mock people who spoke in other languages. Mimicking the way foreigners talked - by making the sound “bar, bar, bar” to suggest that their languages sounded like noise or nonsense – the Athenians stigmatized other cultures as “uncivilized” or “less human” than themselves. However, many of these new “barbarians” were entrepreneurs struggling to get ahead Athenian society, and hiring Sophists to help them and their children build a better future.

Power and Education The teachings of the Sophists were valuable to the extent that they were useful or helpful in forwarding the interests of those who hired their services. But their concern with practicality was also due to their contention that what is called “the truth” is subservient to power, that what matters most is winning the argument, getting people to believe that what was said is true. The “truth” then becomes a matter of what the people believe. And whoever wins in that struggle is “right”.

Relativism Relativism is the belief that knowledge is determined by specific qualities of the observer. And the Sophists were among the first systematic thinkers to conclude that the truth is relative. There are two basic variants of relativism: cultural relativism – the belief that all values are culturally determined, and individual relativism – that even in the same place and time, right and wrong are relative to the unique experiences and preferences of the individual.

Protagoras Perhaps the greatest of the Sophists was Protagoras ( B.C.), who claimed that “man is the measure of all things” – meaning that there is no way to get outside of ourselves to check our views about what is right and wrong, or true and false. In claiming this, Protagoras predicted a crucial tenet of modern social science: that it is utterly impossible to form a culture-free or context-free belief. We can compare beliefs and cultures, but only to other beliefs and cultures.

Pragmatism The relativist views of Sophists like Protagoras are comparable to what later came to be called “pragmatism” (from the Greek pragma, meaning “deed”). Pragmatism is the view that beliefs are to be interpreted in terms of “whether they work” (their usefulness or effectiveness). For the pragmatist, ideas have meaning or truth to the extent that they produce practical results and are effective in furthering our aims.

Protagoras’s Wager With this pragmatic attitude toward the art of argumentation, there was a great deal of competition. A famous example is a story known as Protagoras’s Wager, in which Protagoras is so sure of his abilities that he tells his young student Eulathus that he must pay in full only after he has won his first case. But Eulathus neither argued his first case, nor paid. Protagoras claimed he would sue, since if he won in court he would be paid, and if he lost he would still be paid (it then being Eulathus’ first victory). Eulathus countered, saying that if he lost he would not have to pay, and if he won he would not have to pay (since the court would not require it).

Moral Realism: Might Makes Right As humorous as they might be, instances such as Protagoras’s Wager illustrate the problem with the Sophists’ relativism (now called sophistry for that reason): without some objective means of determining truth, “right” is a matter of who is most powerful, cunning, or able. This view - that might makes right - is often referred to as moral realism. The idea is that, when we are realistic about it, we can see that those in power really do call the shots (and there are many instances in history which seem to support this view).

The Superior Individual Not everybody willingly submits to those in power or depends on a group for clout. Those who do not are well represented by the Sophist Callicles (c. 435 B.C.), who asserted that by nature the strong dominate the weak. This view goes by different names: the natural man, the true man, the superman – and represents the doctrine of the superior individual, an elitist way of looking at individual virtues or traits. In nature, the survival of the fittest is the rule. Callicles held that the superior individual has a natural right to dominate others, since all people are no more created equal than all animals.

The Legacy of the Sophists The Sophists helped free the Greeks to think on new, less restricted levels. From this beginning emerged a nonreligious scientific method as well as a philosophic method of questioning. The Sophists, therefore, laid the cornerstone for the scientific study of behavior, and helped to break the shackles of dogma and superstition. So that, even today, we remain in their debt.