1. Philia Sophia The Love of Wisdom
Philosophy
Philia Sophia
The Love of Wisdom
Lets talk about Philosophy. Now philosophy comes from two words Philia and Sophia which means the love of wisdom, but what kind of love are we talking about? The greeks hand many different words to describe various kinds of love. For example I love my students and I love my dog. The word agape (pronounced ag a pay) this is an unconditional type of love this is a God type love. Then there is the word eros which means erotic, so love that is romantic and then there is PHILIA. Brotherly love. This is friendship love, wisdom is my buddy, wisdom is my friend. This is what Philosophy is. Sophia then means wisdom. Therefore when we put these two words together we come up with the love of wisdom.

2. PHILOSOPHER One who loves wisdom
So if philosophy means love of wisdom what do you think Philosopher means? Put in simple terms Philosopher means one who loves wisdom.

3. SOPHIST
One Who is Wise
Now let’s go ahead and take a look at this, a sophist, what does this mean? If a philosopher is a lover of wisdom, what is a sophist? One that is wise. We have a word in english that we use to describe someone like this-Sophisticated. Now, in what context would we use the word sophisticated?
Someone who is mature, fancy, intellectual, intelligent. Have you ever heard sophisticated used as an insult? Somebody who is sophisticated could be pretentious, somebody who is acting smarter than they actually are. Sometimes in my class I get two types of students. You get one student who is very smart and cultured but every once and awhile you get a student who I expect to be really intelligent by their attitude and persona however when it comes to correcting their work and tests you discover that they are not quite as sophisticated as they act.
We have all met these two types of people.
So a sophist is one who is wise but without the love. That is the difference between a philosopher and a sophists. Somebody who is wise but does not necessarily love wisdom.

4. The Three R’s of the sophists
Relativism
Rhetoric
How can you tell if somebody is a sophist? I have come up with the Three R’s, a system to help you remember. Relativism, Rhetoric and Recompense. Each of these has a picture clue. What is recompense? Do you know what this means? reCOMPENse also sounds like COMPENSATE.
Recompense

5. Relativism Perspective Perception is Reality
First of all we have relativism. Relativism is all about perspective. If you are going to be a sophist then you are looking at the world as ‘this world is how I perceive it.’ Jesus for example said to Pontius Pilot ‘I come here to testify to the truth’ and Pilot answered with ‘what is the truth?’ what is that? do we even know what the truth is? People believe what is right is the truth. However, people have different beliefs and what one person believes is right another person could believe is wrong. Look at our picture for example. It is all about perspective. We use persuasion to get people to see the world from our perspective.
This is where we come back to the fundamental question what is real? what is truth?

6. Truth Objective vs. Relative
There are two types of ways we can look at truth: Objective truth or relative truth. Now objective truth, let’s look at an object. Objective: OBJECTS. A chair that is a chair to me that is a chair to you it never changes. Now where do we hear the word relative? Relative is a family member. Now let’s look our next picture.

7. Modern Family and Relative Truth
Lets look at Claire, it is true that she is a Mother to Haley, Alex and Luke. Although she may describe herself as a mother she is only a mother to three people from other people’s perspectives she is a wife, a sister and a daughter. All of these realities are true. Who or what is relative to you? From

8. 2 + 2 = x
2 + 2 = 4
2 + 2 = what?
If students say x you have just proved relative truth. You have convinced the students that 2+2=x because they have assumed what is on the board is the truth. However we all know that 2+ 2= 4 this is objective. It is what it is.

9. Rhetoric Public Speaking Power of persuasion Play from 3:12-3:44
This moves us on to Rhetoric. So, if Truth comes in two forms Objective and Relativism how can we find out what truth really is? We have already learned that (write on whiteboard) truth is 1. objective. Now, if this marker (hold up marker) is truth. So this marker represents truth. But I loose it or I misplace it(get a student to quickly hide the marker somewhere in the room) , what do I have to do? Find it! So if I believe in objective truth my job as a lover of wisdom is to look for truth. Im looking, im searching and eventually I find it. I find objective truth. But if I am a (write on whiteboard) 2. Relativist (get student to hide wallet again) pick up another marker and say oh here is my marker. I make this the marker I lost because I BELIEVE it to be that marker. Lets take star wars for example. Jedi’s use mind control and persuasion to convince other what they (the Jedi) want is right. What they say becomes truth because others believe it. The Jedi make people believe anything that helps them get what they want.
So when it comes to relative truth we have the potential to convince others what the truth really is. If I want to be a sophist I am going to have to go into training. I need to be excellent at convincing people and persuading people to believe what I want them to believe.
Click
I need to be good at: 1. Public Speaking. This is Rhetoric. This is the art of public speaking. Think back to a time when you heard someone giving a public talk when you were amased by the way they spoke and began thinking wow this person made some really good points and you can’t think about any objections or arguments against what they are saying. But then you walk away, and think this person wasn’t actually as good or as intelligent as I initially believed. They just convinced you through the art of speaking that their ideas were correct.
If you want to persuade somebody you need to be a good speaker. You need to learn the power of persuasion through rhetoric.

10. sophistry
pla
Simple Definition of sophistry
: the use of reasoning or arguments that sound correct but are actually false
: a reason or argument that sounds correct but is actually false
Sophistry is a word that has entered the english dictionary. Take a look. So, from this we learn that a sophist is someone who is not trying to win you over on the evidence. They are using false logic. When a sophist speaks they sound good when they talk but in reality they don’t really make much sense.

11. Paid to Teach Recompense
So, would this be something that you would pay for? would you pay money for someone to teach you the art of persuading someone to seeing things from your point of view which in turn allows you to get what you want in life from just using words.

12. SOPHISTS The Big Three Socrates Plato Aristotle
Now as we know, everything we can learn about Socrates can be found in Plato’s writing and Plato’s dialogues. Plato made it very clear that Socrates was not a Sophist. Plato had a different view of truth than the sophists. Plato view truth as objective. He viewed truth as something to be sought. The Big three are against the sophists. Both Plato and Socrates objected the art of rhetoric. They believed rhetoric was beneath them because they wanted to study reason. They believed if could make convincing arguments then you don’t need rhetoric because using reason and logic should convince everyone.
Aristotle however, he said that if you are not a good speaker people will not believe you.

13. Convince or to be convinced
Sophists
Plato/Socrates
TRUTH
Relative
Objective
LEARN
Rhetoric
Reason
GOAL
Persuade
Convince or to be convinced
END GAME
Power
Knowledge
So lets compare and contrast sophists and plato/socrates.
If you are a sophist truth is relative it can change depending on what is relative to different people. If you are Socrates or Plato Truth is Objective. Using logic and reason you can find the right answer, you can find the truth. But how am I going to get my message out there? Sophists use rhetoric whereas socrates and plato used reason. They wanted to use logic and educated reason to discover the truth. They did not want to use false logic to convince people through excellent public speaking.
Moving on Sophists goal or objective was to persuade people using rhetoric. However, Socrates and Plato wanted to convince or wanted to be convinced. What is the difference between persuading or convincing? When you are convincing you are using logic.
Their end game was to gain power if you were a sophists but socrates and plato were interested in learning and knowledge.