GREEK

HUMANISM
THE SOPHIST

Introduction
The term sophist is not originally derogatory.
It was a synonym for a wise man and
designated anyone who excelled in a
particular science or art.
It acquired a negative connotation in Athens
first with Socrates, then with Plato and
Aristotle who considered sophistry as
apparent wisdom.

 Although the negative remarks of Aristotle

apply to some sophists, the movement itself
had a positive side to it.
Without sophism, it is difficult to account a new
direction for the Greek philosophy and the new
problems that occupied the minds of men like
Socrates and Plato.

1. A Practical Humanism
Sophism ushered in a new period in Greek
philosophy, an age which can be termed
humanist because it centered around man and
everything that belonged to man.
Previously, philosophy was concerned about
the world, its nature and its principle; man only
came in as a part of the whole and was studied
from the standpoint of the first principle.

 With sophism, man is at the forefront of

philosophical discussions.
There are different solutions to the origin and
nature of the world. To answer their questions,
they shifted their attention from the physical world
and began to center their investigation around
man himself.
Ethics, religion and politics became the burning
issues of the day.
Education, the value of the liberal arts, rhetoric
and language were all cultivated with increasing
interest.

 Sophism pursued a different object from that of

the earlier philosophies.
Man is not just its subject of investigation; it also
catered to mans needs, offering him no longer
speculative but practical knowledge: it had one
concrete goal-mans education. Hence, the sophist
is no longer a philosopher, but an educator.
Philosophy was not anymore a disinterested
search for truth, it became a profession- a gainful
employment, as Plato and Aristotle pointed out,
reproaching the sophists for their habit of charging
fees for their teaching work.

 The traditional description of the sophist as a

hunter of rich young men is no longer
regarded as representative of the sophists of
the time, though perhaps applied to a few of
them.
What is certain is that the sophists did not hail
from the aristocratic class; they were itinerant
teachers who used their profession as a means
of livelihood.

Towards New Forms of Culture

The political power was in the hands of the
aristocracy.
However, after the Medic Wars, democracy was
introduced into Athens, which in the Periclean Age
( 492-429 B.C.) became the commercial, cultural and
political center of Greece.
This development not only brought people in contact
with new cultures, but also changed the political way
of life: there was a strengthening of power among
people and growing dissatisfaction with aristocratic
control.

 This condition was highly favorable for the

sophists who were criticizing the principles of
Greek culture at that time.
The characteristic feature of sophism is that it
is more of a philosophical movement (by
itinerant teaching) than a school of philosophy.
Also, sophism has no respect for the
personages of the time and care less for the
content in favour of the form.
Sophism became a sterile form of debate and
empty rhetoric.

 The principal sophists were Protagoras and

Gorgias.