Transcript SoccioPP_ch04 - Philosophy 1510 All Sections

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 5th 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 (481-411 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.