The philosophy of the sophists appears in a very interestingperiod in the history of Greece. This is the era of the rule of the so-called ancient democracy, when the destinies of city-states were often decided in squares. Ancient Greek policies — specific republics with autonomous administration — included the inhabitants of the main city and the surrounding countryside. During the solution of important problems for the state, residents came to people's meetings. A huge role was played by the courts, where it was necessary to defend their point of view. The ability to speak beautifully and convincingly, as well as to lead other people behind them, has become very important and vital. It is in such conditions that the teachers of life and wisdom appear.
This name itself is traditional for the Greekdiscourse of the time. No wonder the term "philosophy" means the love of wisdom. But what is typical for this school? The name itself is not new. In ancient Greek, the word "sophistes" defined people who thoroughly know and know how to do something. So they could have called an artist, a good master, and a sage. In a word, an expert. But from the fifth century BC, this term became one of the main characteristics of the phenomenon known to us as ancient philosophy. Sophists were experts in rhetoric.
Умение говорить убедительно - это одно из главных arts of ancient democracy, vital in order to make a public career. Developing a skill to express your thoughts logically and correctly becomes the basis of education, especially for future politicians. And eloquence comes to the fore, which has become the queen of arts. After all, the shell in which you put your words often serves as a reason for your success. Thus, sophists became teachers of those who wanted to think, speak and do right. They were looking for well-to-do young men who wanted to go far in the political sense or make another stunning civil career.
Since rhetoric and eloquence were veryin demand in society, these new-minded sages began to take payment for their services, which is reflected in historical sources. Their originality also lies in the fact that the philosophy of the sophists practically abandoned the religious justification of their provisions. And why were they to them? After all, sophists are practices that educate politicians. In addition, they laid the foundations of modern culture. For example, following the correctness of eloquence, they developed the norms of the literary Greek language. These wise men in a new way raised questions that have long been asked ancient philosophy. The sophists also took a different look at many problems that they had not previously noticed. What is a person, society, knowledge in general? How absolute are our ideas about the world and nature, and is it even possible?
Sophists, as a phenomenon in the history of thought, takendivide into two groups. The first is the so-called "senior". It includes all the major achievements attributed to this philosophical direction. The "elders" were contemporaries of many other great sages. They lived in the days of the Pythagorean Philolai, representatives of the Eleatic School of Zeno and Melissa, the natural philosophers of Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and Leucippus. They were rather a set of methods, rather than some kind of single school or course. If you try to characterize them as a whole, you can see that they are the heirs of naturalists, because they are trying to explain everything that exists with rational reasons, point out the relativity of all things, concepts and phenomena, and also question the basis of their contemporary morality. The philosophy of the sophists of the older generation was developed by Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, Prodicus, Antifont and Xeniad. We will try to tell about the most interesting in more detail.
This philosopher is most known.We even know the years of his life. According to some reports, he was born in 481 BC, and died in 411. He was born in the trading city of Abdera and was a student of the famous Democritus. The thinking of the latter had a significant impact on Protagoras. He developed the theory of atoms and emptiness, as well as the multiplicity of worlds that are constantly dying and re-emerging, into the idea of the relativity of things. Sophist philosophy has since become a symbol of relativism. Matter is transient and constantly changing, and if something dies, then something else comes in its place. This is our world, argued Protagoras. So with knowledge. Every concept can be given the opposite interpretation. It is also known that Protagoras was the author of the atheistic essay “On the Gods”. It was burned, and the philosopher himself was doomed to exile.
Этих мудрецов очень не любила классическая ancient philosophy. Sophists appeared in the image of her masters cunning liars. “Teachers of imaginary wisdom,” said Aristotle. Among these philosophers are such names as Alkides, Trasimah, Critias, Callicles. They professed extreme relativism and came to the conclusion that the concepts of good and evil practically do not differ from each other. What can be good for one person is bad for another. In addition, human institutions are very different from natural laws. If the latter are inviolable, the former are very different, depending on the ethnic group and culture, and are something of an agreement. Therefore, our ideas about justice are often manifested in the rule of law of the strong. We make people slaves, but after all all people are born free. History appreciated their teachings. For example, Hegel stated that these wise men had done a lot for the birth of the dialectic.
Еще Протагор объявил, что люди являются мерилом Total. That which exists and that which is not. Because everything that we say about the truth is just someone’s opinion. The problem of man in the philosophy of the Sophists appeared precisely as the discovery of subjectivity. Similar theses were developed by Gorgias. This sage was a student of Empedocles. According to the ancient author Sextus Empiricus, Gorgius advanced three positions. The first of these was devoted to the fact that nothing really exists. The second stated that if something is in reality, it is impossible to know it. And the third was the result of the first two. If we were able to prove that something exists and can be known, then we can’t pass on our idea of it exactly. The “wisdom teachers” declared themselves cosmopolitan because they believed that man’s homeland is where he is best. Therefore, they are often accused of lack of shtetl polis patriotism.
The sophists were known to ridicule the belief ingods and a critical attitude towards them. Protagoras, as mentioned above, did not know whether higher powers really exist. “This question is not clear to me,” he wrote, “but there is not enough human life to investigate it to the end.” A representative of the "younger" generation of sophists Critias got the nickname of the atheist. In his work "Sisyphus" he declares every religion to be an invention, which cunning people use in order to impose their laws on fools. The moral is not at all established by the gods, but is fixed by people. If a person knows that no one is following him, he easily violates all established norms. The philosophy of the sophists and Socrates, who also criticized social mores and religion, was often perceived by the not very educated public as one and the same. No wonder Aristophanes wrote a comedy in which he mocked Plato's teacher, attributing to him unusual views.
These wise men became the object of ridicule and criticism.by contemporaries. One of the harshest opponents of the sophists was Socrates. He disagreed with them on questions of faith in God and virtues. He believed that the discussion exists to search for truth, and not to demonstrate the beauty of the arguments that terms should define the essence of things, and not just be beautiful words meaning one thing or another. In addition, Socrates was a supporter of the absolute of good and evil. The latter, in his opinion, comes exclusively from ignorance. The philosophy of the sophists and Socrates, therefore, has similar features and differences. They were adversaries, but in some ways they were allies. If Hegel believed that the “teachers of wisdom” had done a lot for the foundation of the dialectic, then Socrates is recognized as her “father.” Sophists paid attention to the subjectivity of truth. Socrates considered that the latter was born in disputes.
It can be said that all these dissimilar flowscreated prerequisites for the development of many subsequent phenomena in the human worldview. For example, from the above-described reflections on the subjectivity and the influence of an individual's opinion on the perception of truth, an anthropological philosophy was born. The Sophists and Socrates stood at its source. As a matter of fact, even the public aversion that struck them had one nature. The Athenian public at that time was not very well disposed towards intellectuals and tried to equalize everything to the taste of the crowd. However, gradually the wisdom proper began to disappear from the teachings of the sophists. They increasingly practiced not in philosophy, but in the ability to equally well argue different points of view. Their schools became literary circles, where literary writers, not politicians, honed their eloquence. Sophism as a phenomenon finally disappeared after the era of Aristotle, although in history there have been attempts to revive it, including in ancient Rome. But these attempts turned into purely intellectual games of rich people and had neither popularity nor future. Our modern understanding of the word "sophism" comes precisely from this late phenomenon, which was actually emasculated and lost the appeal inherent to its founders.
