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Archetypes of Wisdom

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Title: Archetypes of Wisdom

1
Archetypes of Wisdom

Douglas J. Soccio
Chapter 3
The Sophist Protagoras

2
Learning Objectives

On 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?

3
Ethnocentrism

A 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.

4
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 in Athenian
society, and hiring Sophists to help them and
their children build a better future.

5
Sophos

As 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.

6
Woman as Sophos

One 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.

7
From Sophos to Philosopher

Whereas 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.

8
Presocratic Rational Discourse

The 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.

9
Thales

Despite 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.

10
Heraclitus

The 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.

11
Parmenides

In 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).

12
Zenos Paradoxes

A student of Parmenides, Zeno (c.490-430 B.C.E.),
constructed paradoxes in order to illustrate the
truth of his teachers 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).
Zenos 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).

13
Atomism

In 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.

14
Reason and Necessity

Atomism 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.

15
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
ones 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.

16
Enter the Sophist

In 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.

17
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.

18
The Ring of Gyges

The Ring of Gyges is a mythical story told by
Glaucon in Book 2 of Platos 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.

19
Relativism

The 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

20
Pythagoras, the Pragmatist

Pythagoras (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.

21
Protagoras

Perhaps 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.

22
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.

23
Protagorass 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 Protagorass
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).

24
Moral Realism Might Makes Right

As humorous as they might be, instances such as
Protagorass 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).

25
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.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.

26
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.

27
Discussion Questions