10 main ideas of SOPHISTS

In today's class we are going to talk about the main ideas of the sophists, a group of philosophers who had a great importance in the Athens of the S.V a. c. These, among which he highlighted Protagoras, they were great specialists oratory-rhetoric and the first professional philosophers, since they were the first to teach in exchange for financial remuneration. Why they collided directly with Socrates or Plato.

In addition, they were characterized by their defense of the relativism, pragmatism, agnosticism and skepticism If you want to know more about the sophists, keep reading this lesson because in a PROFESOR we explain it to you in detail. Let's start!

Index

1. What is philosophy for the sophists?
2. main ideas of the sophists
3. Other Ideas of Important Sophists

Among the main ideas of the sophists is that, for them, The philosophymust be a discipline teach the disciples the skills necessary for their development in the politics

In this way, for them the philosopher is a professional who illustrates and teaches another person a know prepared within a passive teaching, that is, the teacher teaches and illustrates and the student listens. In addition, its main objective is to create good speakers who know how to seduce, persuade and convince with argumentative tricks, even if it is with a meaningless speech.

Therefore, we must relate his concept of philosophy directly to the historical context in which this current was born and developed, in the middle of Classical Greece (S. Live. C). Made up of cops with a assembly democracy, in which all citizens met to discuss public issues in their city and create laws.

In this way, having a rhetoric and a strong speech became a key element in influencing the assembly decision making. In addition, it was considered that one of the essential virtues of politicians should be knowing how to express themselves well and convey their ideas convincingly in order to convince their counterparts.

Ultimately, the sophists were the masters of wisdom (Sofia) who taught the art of knowing how to express, know how to speak and defend an idea in exchange for a salary. And it is that, the sophists were the first philosophers to receive an honorarium in exchange for their services.

The main ideas of the sophists are classified into 4 large groups. They are the following.

Relativism

For the sophists, there is no universal criterion in the human being that helps him to know how to judge what is really good or bad or what is true or false. As Protagoras stated: “The human being is the measure of all things.

They will also establish that the laws or customs are fixed relatively, that is, there may be different ways of conceiving good or evil and everything depends on the prism from which we approach. For example: For an Athenian the right thing was for a woman not to have a military education, while for a Spartan it was right for a woman to have such an education.

In short, for a sophist both prospects are the fruit of social constructions, of cultures with different codes, since there are different moral systems that are equally valid.

Skepticism

For the sophists, there is no entity in the world that establishes what is right or what is wrong. Therefore, it must be doubted question the absolute truth and the way we approach and get to know things.

All this is due to the fact that there is no direct relationship between our mind and the real world (unless sometimes we can think things that are not true): We do not know if what our mind perceives is true or lie.

Pragmatism

According to the sophists, the acts and actions of a person are performed depending on whether they are beneficial/useful or harmful/useless to achieve a particular objective, goal or end, regardless of whether it is good or not: We could lie to obtain a own benefit and because our actions are not carried out depending on whether they are good or bad. This is the \ It \ him philosophical pragmatism.

Agnosticism

Another of the main ideas of the sophists is that there is no certainty of the existence of gods or how they are, since there are many variables and factors that do not allow us to know 100%. Thus, Xenophanes, would come to affirm that the divinity is a invention of human and that, therefore, the Greek gods are not the same as, for example, the Hittites, because they obey the characteristics of a specific culture or community.

Within the thought of sophists They also highlighted the following ideas:

1. They were advocates of rhetoric (analyze the forms and properties of a discourse) as a method to transmit knowledge. which is based on a closed speech and of an encyclopedic nature that is transmitted to some students who limited themselves to listening.
2. They defend the moral relativism: There is no universal way to know what is right or wrong.
3. For this group of philosophers truth is relative: They consider that there is no absolute truth and each person has their own vision of reality.
4. They defend that the happiness and virtue arelinked to fame, to power and public recognition.
5. The sophists defend the democracy because it is a system that seeks create consensus and that generates a debate among citizens on the main issues that concern the city and its life.
6. The sophists state that law is not eternal nor universal, but it is variable and changing depending on the group or community to which we approach.

If you want to read more articles similar to Sophists: main ideas, we recommend that you enter our category of Philosophy.

Antiseri and Reale. History of Philosophy. Vol. 1. Ed. Herder. 2010.