Archetypes of WisdomArchetypes of WisdomDouglas J. SoccioDouglas J. Soccio

Chapter 3 Chapter 3

The Sophist: ProtagorasThe Sophist: Protagoras

Learning ObjectivesOn completion of this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:

What is the difference between a sophos and a philosopher?What role did the need for explanations play in the development of Presocratic philosophy?What is a rational discourse?What is a Sophist?What is ethnocentrism?How did changing fees affect the teachings of the Sophists?What is relativism?What is the Ring of Gyges?What is moral realism?What is the doctrine of the Superior Individual?

EthnocentrismA cultural center of its time, Athens attracted people from all around the Mediterranean and parts of Asia. Those who considered themselves “original, true Athenians” grew uncomfortable and defensive. Social scientists now call this attitude ethnocentrism.Ethnocentrism comes 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. Their own practices are right or natural, while those of others are wrong or deviant.

BarbariansThe 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 in Athenian society, and hiring Sophists to help them and their children build a better future.

SophosAs early Greek civilization became increasingly refined and sophisticated, a new kind of thinker emerged known as a sophos, from the Greek word for “wise.”The sophos lived and spoke in ways that were interpreted as showing disregard for conventional values, and that set them apart from regular folks living “normal” lives.One of the earliest popular images of philosophers is the stereotype of an “absent-minded,” starry-eyed dreamer asking silly questions.

Woman as SophosOne of the earliest examples of a woman philosopher was Aesara of Lucania (c. third century B.C.E.). In a fragment of her book, On Human Nature (included in the text), she claims that through the introspection and contemplation of our own souls, we can discover the “natural” foundation of all law and the structure of morality.

From Sophos to PhilosopherWhereas the sophos (sage or wise man) was seen as a kind of prophet-priest-therapist, the philosopher was seen as an unusual sort of thinker and truth-seeker.The very first Western thinkers identified as philosophers were initially concerned with questions about nature (physis) and about the order of the world (kosmos).The earliest philosophers were referred to as the Presocratics because they appeared prior to Socrates, the first major figure of the Western tradition.

Presocratic Rational DiscourseThe Presocratics initiated the transformation of mythology into rational inquiry about nature and the cosmos.The Presocratic philosophers’ intense interest in explanations shaped the development of reason by triggering questions of logical consistency and standards of knowledge. These concerns played a major role in the origins and historical development of Western philosophy.

ThalesDespite the fame of Socrates, the first Western philosopher was Thales (c.624-545 B.C.E.).He is the first thinker to suggest that all of the things in nature are ultimately made of one basic “stuff” (which he believed to be water), since, as he says, “the nutriment of everything is moist.”This is an example of monism – the belief that reality is essentially one – whether it be one process, one structure, or one substance. Thales’ claim that everything is composed of water was a move beyond mythological accounts, an attempt to explain the changes he saw in nature. Seeking reasons for holding a belief is part of rational discourse.

HeraclitusThe fragments of writing that remain of Heraclitus (510-480 B.C.E.) reveal a powerful intellect. He claimed that all things are constantly changing. But he also claimed that there is an order to how things change, which he called the Logos.A complex Greek word, logos means “thought,” “speech,” and “meaning” (to name a few). But its most important sense was “the rule according to which all things are accomplished and the law which is found in all things.” For Heraclitus, the Logos is like God, but without the human qualities earlier philosophers and poets had attributed to “It.”

ParmenidesIn contrast to Heraclitus’ notion that things are always changing, Parmenides (c. fifth century B.C.E.) felt that change was an illusion. The senses make us trust in the way things appear, while what is really the case can only be understood through rational thought. This is the distinction between appearance and reality.Parmenides claimed that there are not actually many things (though there appears to be), but only “the One” (existence itself, or “being”). Parmenides radically transformed the early philosophers’ interest in cosmology (the study of the universe as a rationally ordered system) into ontology (the study of being).

Zeno’s ParadoxesA student of Parmenides, Zeno (c.490-430 B.C.E.), constructed paradoxes in order to illustrate the truth of his teacher’s counter-intuitive claims. In each case, the senses tell us that there is motion (of individual objects), while rational thought shows that motion is impossible (since the space to be traversed can be infinitely divided).Zeno’s paradoxes are one of the earliest uses of a method of proof known as a reductio ad absurdum (reduce to absurdity), which shows that following a particular position leads to a contradiction (which can never be true).

AtomismIn contrast to Parmenides, the Atomists claimed that reality consists of atoms (minute, indivisible particles) and the void (empty space containing no atoms).

The two most prominent Atomists were:Leucippus (c. fifth century B.C.E.)Democritus (c. 460-370 B.C.E.)

Atoms are minute material particles, the ultimate material constituents of all things.Because motion is an inherent property of atoms, they are constantly moving.

Reason and NecessityAtomism is a type of materialism – the belief that everything in the world is made of matter. While this serves us well in science, it raises interesting problems.Is there is any purpose or intention in the universe? The atomists’ answer is “no.” Though there is predictable order, “nothing occurs at random.” So there are no chance occurrences, and everything happens by necessity.This leads to another problem: if thinking is a material process, according to Democritus, we are “cut off from the real,” unable to have certain knowledge. Instead, our only option is to rely on how we perceive things and what others around us think is true – that is, on convention.

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. 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, there was great value in rhetorical skills, which the Sophists taught to young men of Athens whose families could afford to pay the price.

Enter the SophistIn earlier times, the sophos had been sages, concerned with the study of nature. The “new sophos” of the fifth century B.C.E. – now called Sophists – thought it impossible to discover “the Truth,” and so turned their attention to human life and conduct. In addition to the art of argumentation, these traveling teachers gave lessons in 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.

Power and EducationThe 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.”

The Ring of GygesThe Ring of Gyges is a mythical story told by Glaucon in Book 2 of Plato’s Republic.According to the myth, the Ring of Gyges granted its owner the power to become invisible at will. Through the story of the ring, the Sophist Glaucon discusses whether a typical person would be moral if they did not have to fear the consequences of their actions.The point of the story is that good and bad is a matter of custom and preference. While different individuals desire different things, everyone seeks some form of power.

RelativismThe Sophists were the first systematic thinkers to conclude that the truth is relative. Based on this tenet, the Sophists argued that we need only accept what, according to our culture, seems true at the moment.Relativism is the belief that knowledge is determined by specific qualities of the observer. There are two basic variants of relativism:

Cultural relativism – the belief that all values are culturally determined Individual relativism – that even in the same place and time, right and wrong are relative to the unique experiences and preferences of the individual

Pythagoras, the PragmatistPythagoras (sixth century B.C.E.), believed that the principle of number accounted for everything in the world, expressing the mathematical relations of an ordered whole.Most of us are familiar with this name – from the Pythagorean theorem in geometry class.From music to astronomy, the Pythagoreans felt that the motion of the heavenly bodies produced harmonies, which they described as “the cosmic music of the spheres.”It is possible to think of these ordered relations, which describe how things change or move, as an example of what Heraclitus meant by the Logos.

ProtagorasPerhaps the greatest of the Sophists was Protagoras (481-411 B.C.E.), 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.

PragmatismThe 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 WagerWith 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 an 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 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 IndividualNot 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.E.), 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 SophistsThe 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.

Discussion QuestionsAre lawyers Sophists? Are advertisers Sophists? In what ways are these professions susceptible to sophistry? Explain.

Chapter Review:Key Concepts and Thinkers

ethnocentrismbarbariansophoscosmospsychelogoscosmologyontologyreductio ad absurdumAtomismAtoms

atomsrelativismmoral realismpragmatismThalesPresocraticsHeraclitusParmenides of EleaLeucippusDemocritusSophistProtagoras