Sophists

Avi I. Mintz
The final version of this article is published in The Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and
Theory, ed. D.C. Phillips (SAGE, 2014), pp. 777-779.

In fifth century BCE Greece, there emerged a new class of teachers, the first generation of sophists,
including, Protagoras of Abdera, Gorgias of Leontini, Hippias of Elis, Prodicus of Ceos, and others. They
are sometimes called the “older sophists” to distinguish these pioneers from those who would later lay
claim to the title beginning in the fourth century. The sophists hailed from different regions of Greece,
had a variety of intellectual interests, and diverse curricula for their students. But they were united in
that they believed that they possessed specialized expertise in teaching, and offered an education that
promised to help students reach new intellectual and social heights. Because they subjected religious,
political, and social customs, to scrutiny, some Greeks branded them subversive and harmful to both the
youth and the society in general. At the same time, however, some Greeks welcomed them, including
Pericles, the great Athenian statesman. The sophists’ celebration of the value and power of learning,
their intellectual advances, and their innovations in pedagogy and curriculum, were so profound that it
is difficult to overstate their importance to Western educational theory and practice.

The sophists arose in response, at least in part, to two cultural shifts in Greece. First, the sixth and fifth
centuries featured a flourishing of intellectual activity. There were advances in science, literature,
philosophy, mathematics and a variety of other fields. Prior to the sophists, formal Greek education was
limited to what would now be called “elementary education,” probably ending around the time of
puberty, and involving only reading, writing, mathematics, music, and physical education. Many young
men, however, wanted to learn about the new intellectual developments of their day and a market
emerged to satisfy them. Sophists began to travel to various cities – especially Athens, where the thirst
for learning became a defining characteristic of the population – offering lessons to young men who
sought them.

Second, the advent of democracy in Athens resulted in the demand for a particular, new set of skills.
Political and social prominence was no longer limited to the descendants of the king, nor to an
aristocratic class. Social mobility became a possibility for a far greater number of individuals. Indeed, at
least in theory, any citizen who could persuade others during collective deliberations could play a
prominent role the city’s leadership and become part of the city’s elite. In addition, Athenian justice
depended on private individuals prosecuting others – there was no public office of legal representatives
in Athens. Any Athenian citizen could attempt to make a name for himself by prosecuting another
citizen. Many sophists recognized that persuasive public speaking could be improved with technique and
practice. They therefore developed and offered lessons in oratory that were enthusiastically sought by
young men.
To whatever extent the sophists tapped into a nascent desire for political and social advancement, on
the one hand, or a thirst for learning, on the other, the sophists enabled these desires to flourish – they
both served the market and enlarged it. It was only a brief historical jump from these itinerant teachers
who met in marketplaces, gymnasia, or were hosted in the homes of the wealthy, to their students’
generation who, in the early fourth century, established the first schools of higher education, as they
would be called today. In the late 390s, Isocrates, whom the oratorical tradition places as a student of
Gorgias, opened his school. Plato, whose deep engagement with the sophists’ thought is attested
throughout his dialogues, opened the Academy about five years later.

As a class of teachers seeking out and competing for students, the sophists developed particularly
engaging promotional displays. The sophists offered public lectures conveying innovations in speech
composition or content, offering a sample of the intellectual and/or oratorical prowess that students
might acquire. These displays sometimes involved a particularly moving retelling of a moral tale – such
as Prodicus’ story about Heracles’ decision to choose the difficult path to virtue rather than the alluring,
easy path to vice, and Hippias’ speech about Nestor’s advice on the noble pursuits for the young – or
they might argue a counterintuitive or countercultural idea – such as Gorgias’ Encomium to Helen, in
which he dazzled his Athenian audience with his novel prose style as much as his defense of Helen. In
addition to speeches, a display might involve fielding questions with clever, erudite and otherwise
impressive responses.

Students who attended the sophists’ regular lessons might have listened to lectures, recited speeches,
or engaged in the analysis of both the form and content of poetry or speeches. Some sophists would
question their students; indeed, Diogenes Laertius credits the invention of “Socratic” questioning not to
Socrates but to Protagoras. Others provided lessons in debate, requiring their students to argue either
side of a question, another innovation Diogenes Laertius credits to Protagoras. The duration of study
seems to have been various, and it is likely that there were different fees for short courses or lectures
and longer associations. (Plato’s Socrates quipped that he could only afford Prodicus’ cheaper, shorter
lecture on the precise use of words.) On the other hand, some students would have experienced a
prolonged apprenticeship, travelling with a sophist from city to city, and some hoped to become
sophists themselves.

The actual curriculum for individual sophists varied, as individual sophists had different interests and
specializations. Most sophists taught oratory and debate. Many promised to teach excellence or virtue,
especially pertaining to politics and citizenship. Most collected fees for their teaching, and Protagoras,
Gorgias, Hippias, and Antiphon (b. ca. 479) were reputed to have acquired great wealth through their
teaching. Prodicus specialized in the precise use of words. Others focused on literary criticism, ethics,
psychology, religion, or other subjects. Plato’s Protagoras disdainfully remarks that other sophists teach
their students traditional subjects like calculation, astronomy, geometry and music, subjects on which
he would not waste students’ time. In general, sophists were studying a wide range of topics. As
teachers who invited students to participate in an intellectual journey, it is likely that they would have
taught the subjects in which they themselves were immersed.
The question of what the sophists taught depends, however, on the definition of “sophist,” a problem
that has proven difficult to settle. Who was a sophist? The root for sophist, sophistēs, is sophos, wisdom.
Until the fifth century, “sophist” was a term of praise, often used for poets, whom the Greeks regarded
as teachers. By the fourth century, “sophist” was generally a term of disparagement. For example,
Aristotle wrote that sophists teach social and political matters, without practicing or having any
experience of them, and Xenophon warned that sophists defraud their students.

Based on the fourth century depictions of sophists, one might define a sophist as a professional teacher
who offered lessons for pay in, at a minimum, oratory or political affairs, but who was not himself
politically active. Their lack of political experience, and the improbable boasts of their lessons’ benefits,
led people to view sophists with suspicion. But it is not clear that the definition of sophist that took
shape in the fourth century is applicable to the older sophists. Several of the older sophists were
politically active. Pericles was said to have asked Protagoras to write the constitution for the Athenian
colony at Thurii. Gorgias served as an ambassador, negotiating and alliance between Athens and the
Leontinians. Prodicus and Hippias too seem to have served as ambassadors. There remains scholarly
controversy about whether the historical Antiphon – political leader, orator, and sophist – was a single
person or three different people. But if he was indeed the same person, he was an Athenian sophist who
was a leader of the oligarchy – a political role for which he was later executed.

Not only were the sophists more experienced in the affairs of public life than the later criticism would
suggest, it is also not clear that they should be viewed strictly as paid teachers. While most of the
sophists did seek fees for their lessons, others apparently did not. Socrates famously accepted no fees
and was yet identified as a sophist. Later philosophers like Plato suggest that such a label conflated
sophists and philosophers. But such distinctions may have emerged after or late in Socrates’ lifetime.
Further, scholars have debated whether Gorgias should be considered a sophist, since he seemed to be
exclusively concerned with teaching oratory. Yet it is possible that these distinctions later evolved to
distinguish the single, diverse group of sophists in the fifth century. In short, the range of meaning of
“sophist” in the fifth century was quite broad, probably encompassing many intellectuals who
consciously educated young men. Ultimately, what united the older sophists was that they kindled a
desire for learning in young men, they created possibilities for young men to continue their education,
they developed innovations in pedagogy and curriculum, and they led a cultural transformation that laid
the foundation for the popular acceptance of learning beyond elementary education.

Avi I. Mintz, The University of Tulsa

Further reading
Diels, H., & Sprague, R. K. (Eds.). (1972). The older Sophists: a complete translation by several hands of
the fragments in Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, edited by Diels-Kranz. With a new edition of
Antiphon and Euthydemus. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. (reprint 2001,
Indianapolis: Hackett Pub.)
Dillon, J. M., & Gergel, T. (2003). The Greek Sophists. London; New York: Penguin.
Guthrie, W. K. C. (1971). The Sophists. London: Cambridge University Press.
Kerferd, G. B. (1981). The Sophistic Movement. New York: Cambridge University Press.